Mirrors Multiplied, Original Flavor
by Skysaber
Summary: As it was when it was first posted, barring some minor spellchecks and formatting. This story lives, and will be continued. Chapter 20 is mostly done. (Please disregard old email addy - story's old)
1. 1

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part One 

by Jared Ornstead 

A Disclaimer I stole (Oh, the irony! ;-)   
Ranma 1/2 property of Takahashi Rumiko, Sailormoon property of Takeuchi   
Naoko. 

************************************************ 

The swirls of mist parted and out stepped a well built, handsome   
male figure onto the streets of Nerima. On his wrist a light on a   
bracelet flickered and died.   
Ranma looked down at the piece of jewelry, at its dead lights, then   
swiftly examined the area around him. "Well," he said, speaking to   
himself. "Looks like I'm stuck here. The next step, obviously, is to   
find out what `here' is."   
He had dropped to one knee after exiting the now departed mists.   
With his bearings back he pulled himself to his feet. "First priority   
is information," he quoted, and felt an inward pang. With a grimace he   
set his steps toward the Tendo dojo. "And that means Nabiki." 

Hopping across rooftops Ranma had time to think. And his mind drew   
him back to that first fateful time, when he and his father had stolen   
the magic mirror from Happosai. Seeing Akane married to Ryoga hadn't   
been so bad in retrospect, certainly not after what had followed.   
That trip to Jusenkyo, where they had prevented their previous   
selves from getting dropped in the cursed springs. That could have gone   
better. Certainly bringing Happosai along, and then leaving him there,   
had been a bad idea. How bad had become exactly clear when a *second*   
pair of Genma and son had appeared at the Tendo dojo.   
They'd mugged the little freak after that. Ranma just wished he'd   
gotten some instructions before he'd gone and used the bracelet he'd   
taken from him. Standing there in an agony of embarrassment he'd gone   
and yelled out a wish. A really careless wish. 

Dawn's rosy fingers were parting the horizon as Ranma jumped down   
before the gates of the dojo. Repeating the phrase to himself "Take   
nothing for granted this time!" He checked the wooden sign outside.   
Yup, it said this was the Tendo's place, dojo included. That was good.   
Ranma slipped inside the gate and knocked on the front door. It was   
early, but Kasumi should still be up, and he'd figured out what season   
it was by looking in the store fronts, at the items they had on   
display. By that he'd figured that dawns were coming a little late this   
time of year and this wasn't long before the Tendo household got moving   
in earnest. So it should be ok.   
Kasumi answered the door with her customary smile and a "Hello, can   
I help you?"   
Ranma exhaled a big sigh of relief. No knife wielding, half-crazed   
Kasumi, it was just a normal one. Reading her body language it was   
obvious that she didn't know him, yet.   
He gathered his courage. "Ah, excuse me, miss Tendo. But I was   
looking for Nabiki. Do you know if I can see her?" That seemed neutral   
enough.   
Kasumi answered. "Oh my. She's just getting ready for school now.   
Would you care to wait in the parlor?"   
Ranma nodded his thanks. "Yes, thank you. I would be happy to." 

He'd maybe overdone it a bit on the thanks, but he *was* feeling   
grateful. As she let him inside he looked around. This place was almost   
exactly the same as the original Tendo home. The relief he felt was   
almost tangible. Being stuck here wouldn't be so bad if he could   
actually make it work this time.   
This time. He shuddered a bit, remembering all the times he hadn't.   
Kasumi went back to the kitchen and familiar scents wafted over him   
from the open door. He breathed in a deep, double breath and smiled to   
himself. It didn't seem to matter if weird alien things were rampaging   
on the lawn or if it were her sisters she was cooking in the pot (only   
that once, but that once was bad enough) Kasumi's cooking always   
managed to smell delicious.   
Ranma pulled his mind back to priorities. If he messed this one up   
he'd have nowhere else to go. He had to make it work, and that meant   
finding out as much as possible without revealing anything about   
himself.   
It wasn't long before Nabiki, in her school attire, came down the   
stairs. She paused at the sight of him. "Oh. Hello, are you waiting for   
someone?"   
Ranma nodded. He'd found out by hard experience that getting   
surprised was a bad idea. He'd known she was coming down the stairs   
before her first foot hit the steps.   
"Why yes, Nabiki, I was actually waiting to see you."   
She blink-blinked.   
So far not so bad, he just wished he'd been able to read more from   
her reaction. Ranma continued. "Yah, I was hoping I could ask you a few   
questions. If you don't mind."   
The familiar mercenary gleam came to her eyes. Ranma almost wept   
with joy at the sight of it. She noticed his reaction and did a   
double-take. He quickly smothered it. Cautiously, she sat by him on the   
veranda.   
"Ok, first of all, I don't do business with people I don't know.   
What's your name?"   
Ranma grinned in reply, judging her reactions. "You charge for   
introductions, Nabiki. Why should I give you one for free?"   
She blinked, then settled into a more wary pose and counted out a   
small stack of yen coins. Ranma left them where they were on the floor   
between them.   
"Tell me what you know about the Saotomes." He asked.   
Nabiki's eyes hardened. She pointed to the coins. "I've paid for an   
answer, and I don't like to be kept waiting."   
Ranma sighed, he needed to learn about any possible blood feuds or   
anything going on between their families before revealing his name, and   
he couldn't afford to have her clam up now. With a bit of a pause he   
hauled out a handful of coin and counted out a small stack equal to   
hers, then placed it beside the first, which he made no move to take.   
"Humor me." He asked.   
Her eyes glittered at him in calculation, then she relented. He   
groaned inwardly. Her prices always went up when she was annoyed, and   
he couldn't afford to get everything he needed at inflated prices.   
She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. "What I   
know is that they have a house up on the hill near the Kuno estate,   
addresses are extra," she added. "But other than having had a tragedy   
in their family recently I don't have much about them. I usually occupy   
myself with families who have kids in our school."   
That told him alot more than Nabiki thought it did. "My name is   
Ranma." He supplied, then pushed both stacks of coins toward her. "Any   
details on the tragedy?"   
She looked at the yen, but didn't take it. "I'd charge you for it,   
but I really don't know anything about it. Why are you so interested?"   
He fought for a moment over whether he should tell her. Finally he   
stood up, and grinned lopsidedly down at her. "I have to go find out if   
that information is for sale. Sorry, Nabiki, but I can't set a price   
before I know how much it's worth."   
She blink-blinked up at him, her own features relaxing. "Say,   
Ranma. You're pretty good at this." She shuffled her feet. She'd   
started to ask him for a date, she was getting pretty desperate. It was   
unusual for her to find a guy who wasn't afraid of her. That he also   
looked great and seemed to have a brain only made it better. But she   
choked. "Are you interested in a little business proposition?"   
He shook his head, smiling full force now. "Sorry, Nabiki. Maybe   
later, but I have some stuff I have to take care of first."   
He turned away from her and leaped over the wall.   
Nabiki's jaw dropped and she stood staring at the spot that he'd   
disappeared from. She considered herself a very worldly person. But   
she'd had no idea that what he'd done was even possible.   
With a bit of grinding of gears, the well-oiled machinery of her   
mind began to pursue the thought of how she might find out more about   
him. 

Ranma ran across the rooftops. Nabiki had been a dry well, and that   
was bad. By now he had hoped to have names, addresses, feuds, even down   
to the hair color of the siblings he'd never known he'd had (that was   
always a tricky one).   
That she didn't know anything could mean alot of things, and it   
didn't rule out much.   
For instance it could still mean there was that stupid promise   
between their families about uniting the school of Anything Goes. She   
just might not know anything about it. In fact, he smirked recalling   
it, if he remembered right the Tendo daughters hadn't learned about   
that particular promise until he had, the day it was to happen.   
His pop wasn't the only one to pull surprises.   
Ranma paused, halfway up the hill. His mom's ancestral estate   
wasn't all that far from the Kuno place, and it was nicer. But he   
stopped himself before running all the way there.   
Doubts wracked him. Without local information he could go charging   
into anything. I mean, sure he could verify that it was his house and   
all, but that wasn't the first part even of trying to fit in as   
himself. How could he fool his own parents into accepting him if he   
didn't even know the first thing about his life there?   
"Okay," Ranma reassured himself, sitting down on the roof where he   
was at. "If I was going to Furinkan I could wait and pounce on Sasuke   
when he showed up to help Kuno out of something. He's the only one   
besides Nabiki who usually knows much. But Nabiki doesn't know me, so I   
obviously don't go to their school. And not knowing *where* I   
supposedly went before I can't pass myself off as a transfer student."   
Ranma leaned back, angst and frustration building. This had all   
started so simply. Trying to undo the curse. But he and his pop had   
really screwed that one up. They'd screwed it up so badly that Ranma   
had gone on alone. Though that really hadn't been on purpose.   
But by then it was too late. He didn't have the mirror anymore.   
He'd been traveling by wishes from this bracelet they'd taken from   
Happosai. And he didn't even know what it did until he was already   
using it. 

Ranma could remember standing in the yard. He and his old man had   
just pounded the old freak flat and were pulling all sorts of weird   
junk out of his clothes, trying to find something to set things right   
again.   
Behind him, the Tendo family had been huddled in fear, right   
alongside the second pair of Genma and son.   
The whole thing had been *way* too much for Ranma. And after   
stripping Happosai dry they'd found nothing conveniently labeled "fix   
everything." Which was a shame because they'd had no idea what else   
they'd been looking for. There were mounds of undergarments on the   
ground all around them, a few trinkets, and a freakishly huge pile of   
scrolls.   
Genma had bonked his son for the exclusive right to peruse the   
scrolls, which left Ranma holding a pile of trinkets, trying to figure   
out what to use them for.   
In typical thoughtless frustration he'd reared back and yelled out   
the wish that none of this had ever happened to him.   
And you couldn't ever unmake a wish. He'd tried. 

That first reality had shocked him the most. First it was finding   
out that his wish hadn't just moved him, it had changed the past. He   
had woken up in a world where he'd been born female.   
It had taken him nine weeks to calm down.   
There were parts that weren't half bad to start with. He'd been   
living with his mother, had already graduated from a nursing program,   
and had a job at a hospital. Then he'd had to deliver Akane's baby (by   
Kuno) and he'd soured on that reality *real* fast.   
The second thing was that, as much as he could tell, he kept his   
own thoughts and mind, with additional skills and memories creeping in   
gradually. He'd stayed in that reality just long enough to begin to   
start liking boys. He hadn't been able to take it any longer than that.   
Ranma shook himself out of his reverie. He had to plan. 

Nabiki got to school just before her usual factors arrived. This   
was unusual but a good practice for her, you could never know if your   
underlings were going into business for themselves unless you stopped   
by unexpectedly sometimes.   
So far they hadn't. Her trio of lieutenants showed up without   
customers in tow and Nabiki gathered them in swiftly.   
"Look, you guys. I ran across someone interesting, and I want you   
to find out all you can about a boy named Ranma Saotome."   
She was guessing that was his name, but her hunches usually proved   
correct. And if that didn't work she could always institute a broader   
search. 

Sasuke materialized on one knee before his noble master, who was at   
that time, composing an ink painting. "Oh, great master, I bear news.   
The treacherous Saotome whom you most despise has reappeared!"   
Kuno's ink brush snapped, and he abandoned his painting. "Tell me   
the way of it. I want everything, Sasuke."   
The Ninja obeyed. "He has been seen on a rooftop not far from here.   
He is without his sword, and appears vulnerable."   
Kuno's eyes glowed. "Bring me my katana. I know not how this   
treacherous fiend continues to live, but he will not be long in that   
condition." Then he paused, as a thought flickered across his features.   
"Sasuke, this man was on a roof you say? Well how, under Heaven,   
did he get there?!" 

Ranma had come to a decision. He couldn't afford to wait until   
memories started trickling in. It was attractive to try, but he always   
seemed to warp in right at a critical time, and who knows what could   
happen if he waited?   
He *could* play it by ear. That usually meant throwing himself   
right in and trying not to bomb. He'd prefer to be more prepared, but   
it wouldn't do to be caught sitting on a rooftop either.   
Being caught, and knowing nothing, was always worse (in his   
experience) than rushing in not knowing anything. If the first happened   
then they were suspicious. If the second happened he could always claim   
to be ill.   
On the heels of that thought followed a bright inspiration. He   
moved swiftly to act upon it. 

Nodoka had a beautiful kitchen. She had staff to help, of course,   
and for parties and occasions she relied on them completely while she   
attended to other things. But cooking for her family had always brought   
a sense of peace to her.   
And she needed that peace just now.   
She was just ladling out a serving for herself when a shriek tore   
through the fog that had edged up into her mind. Painful reminiscing   
gave way to cold-edged anger as she swept up her katana and rushed out   
on the lawn to deal with it.   
"If that bastard Kuno thinks that he can..."   
The words died on her lips and the sword fell nervelessly from her   
hand. In the outer garden and she saw her son, her *SON* was standing,   
leaning against a tree. He was bleeding from a head wound, but her   
experience with such things told her that it was minor. One of the   
maids stood by a basket of wash she had been taking out to the cleaning   
house. The contents had strewn all over the lawn when she had dropped   
it in her surprise.   
Nodoka's lips were numb. Her sword lay unnoticed on the grass   
behind her. She took a step toward the phantom of what could only be   
her son.   
"Oh, Ranma. I thought you were DEAD!" 

Ranma could hardly believe what was happening. The first thing that   
had almost turned him back was the armed guards placed around the   
compound. He wasn't used to seeing more than a few servants, even at   
his mom's estate. In the realities where they lived more humbly there   
were never any at all.   
So where had all the guards come from?   
Still, they hadn't turned him back. It had been easy enough to slip   
by without being spotted. The second thing that had nearly thrown his   
plan was, after he had placed himself and made a slight cut on his   
forehead (for the head wound story he was planning on using), the first   
reaction he got was a shriek.   
It was more extreme than he had planned. The maid (whom he couldn't   
identify) had dropped everything and let go a scream that would have   
suited if a demon had bitten her.   
And having lived on the spirit plane for at least one reality he   
knew exactly how to judge.   
Then his mom rushed out on the field. Seeing the look on her face   
and the way she was holding that katana he'd almost abandoned his plan   
and bolted then and there. Then she'd seen him. He'd never seen that   
look before, not even the time she had asked him to commit seppuku.   
His blood froze as she said, "Oh, Ranma. I thought you were DEAD!"   
More swiftly than he could think more guards had materialized,   
waving guns and pointing them at every possible angle. Somehow he and   
his mother were in the center of this, being rushed back inside by the   
household staff and servants.   
In moments he found himself in a couch with towels wrapped around   
him as an elderly lady nurse tended the cut on his forehead. There were   
servants and butlers staring at him as if he'd done something more   
amazing than sprout wings and fly.   
Finally, he built the courage to say. "Mom, what's going on?!"   
Nodoka sat weeping on a chair by his side. She hadn't taken her   
eyes off him in minutes. "Oh, Ranma. Don't you worry about it. We'll   
have you comfortable in no time. Please," she waved the nurse aside and   
moved up close to her son. "you'll be fine. Just tell us where you've   
been these last two months."   
Ranma swallowed. The stress question. The BIG question. He had no   
idea where he'd been because he had just appeared this morning. He   
sweated, but answered it honestly. "I'm not really sure, mom. I'm a   
little fuzzy on alot of things."   
Nodoka frowned. This wasn't like her son at all. But her eyes could   
not deny the reality before her, her fingers found the same young man   
she'd thought lost. Letting the heart get away with her head for once   
she threw her arms around her lost boy and hugged him tight.   
"Oh, my son, my son. My only son. I felt sure I'd never see you   
again!"   
Ranma was a little taken aback. But decided to ride with it a while   
longer. His arms found their way around his mother. "Sure, mom. I'll be   
alright. You can tell pops that I'll be fine too."   
Nodoka froze and pulled away just far enough to look down at her   
son. "But Ranma, your father isn't here anymore."   
He scowled. This wasn't going well at all. "You mean he's off on   
another training mission?" He queried.   
His mother wiped a tear from her eye. Shaking her head, she knew   
that something had to have happened to her boy to cause him to act like   
this. "No, Ranma. Your father is dead." 

Nabiki got her information in the break just before second class.   
Neatly typed sheets printed from a computer were handed to her on the   
sly by one of her factors. Slipping them in among her class notes (she   
stayed ahead against just this sort of need) she began to read during   
class.   
The first page was birth weight and vital statistics. Pretty close   
to what she would have said from having seen him that morning.   
Satisfied that she had probably got a match she turned the page.   
Her eyes grew big as dinner plates and the kids around her grew   
pretty certain that she wasn't reading anything at all related to   
class.   
It was all Nabiki could do not to drop her pose further. This guy   
was loaded! I mean, she was used to rich creeps, for example Kuno,   
dropping money around as if the word itself had no meaning. She had not   
expected the haggler who had dickered price with her so easily that   
morning.   
Something was usually up when someone showed an out-of-place skill   
like that. And Nabiki made most of her money when something was up. She   
turned another page.   
Her reaction nearly got an eraser thrown at her head. By this time   
even the teacher knew something was up, and asked Nabiki to answer a   
question related to todays topic. Nabiki recovered herself and answered   
it credibly, but no sooner were the teacher's eyes off her than she was   
back to her papers.   
There was a note on her desk, demanding an explanation. It was from   
one of her factors, so she couldn't ignore it. Hastily she scribbled   
"This guys got a blood feud going on with the Kuno family!" before   
returning it. The student who received it nearly shot up out of his   
seat.   
Nabiki couldn't blame him. She'd nearly had the same reaction   
herself. But there before her were the details. They'd been going at it   
for ten years now. Two ancient samurai families with notions of honor.   
One had gotten slighted, she noted wryly that it was Kuno's dad who'd   
done the slighting, and the other had responded the only way they   
could.   
It looked like all the proper people had been paid off, so there   
was no official attention as the two families ripped each other up.   
Nabiki turned the final page. After what she had seen it was a   
tribute to her that she didn't cry out louder than she did.   
The final page was a death certificate for one Ranma Saotome. Died   
of sword wounds (though it didn't say it, that was included as an   
aside) two months ago. 

Akane was worried about her sister. She could tell something was   
up. Heck, the *school* could tell something was up. Nabiki's   
lieutenants were making a fortune just answering questions about their   
boss. The approved answers only, of course.   
For her sister to drop her guard this much always meant something   
big was up. And the last time something big was up had been a near   
foreclosure on the dojo.   
Feeling the need for answers, Akane sought her sister out at lunch   
and sat next to her. "Okay, Nabiki, spill it. The last time you were   
this upset I had to pose for panty pictures to get us out of it." Akane   
blushed slightly at the memory. Kuno wasn't bad looking, but he was a   
freak of nature and everyone knew it. Those pictures had been blown up   
to poster size and now decorated his room.   
Nabiki raised her eyes from the papers she'd been studying.   
Normally she ate in the lunch room where her services were easily   
available to those who wanted them. Now she'd handed off the   
information brokering to her small staff and was sitting in a secure   
place in the yard. It was one of the safest places for talking she knew   
of, and she had a boy or two from the sumo team hired to keep it   
private. She guessed they had assumed it was okay to let her sister   
pass. And now that she thought about it, it was. She needed someone to   
talk to.   
"Relax Akane. This has nothing to do with us. The finances for the   
dojo are stable. So you can relax." She had just repeated herself and   
she knew it. Why was she getting so rattled? Nabiki drew herself up.   
"Okay, Akane, here's the deal. I ran into a guy this morning,   
asking for information on the Saotome family."   
Akane didn't get it. "So what's the big deal? People ask you for   
information all the time."   
Nabiki nodded. "That's right. But how many people ask me for   
information regarding their own family?"   
Akane thought about it. "Well, there was that time dad..."   
"I mean, besides us?" Nabiki interrupted.   
Akane shrugged. "I guess it is kinda weird."   
Nabiki despaired about showing her sister how amazing this was, so   
she switched over to the main meat of the subject. "And that's not the   
oddest part. I've been doing some research. And do you know who this   
guy is? He's from a big samurai family, one of the oldest in Japan, and   
do you know what's more? I have a paper here assuring everyone that the   
guy I just talked to this morning is dead."   
Akane's eyes were huge. "Wow! So what's up? I mean, he obviously   
isn't dead or he couldn't have been talking to you."   
"Obviously he wasn't dead." Nabiki supplied, not mentioning how   
very *not* dead he'd made her feel. "So I've been looking into that.   
The doctor who performed the autopsy was Kuno's personal physician. So   
he must have been paid off *real* big to fake something like this,   
especially since Ranma obviously didn't intend to stay dead for very   
long."   
"So what's up?"   
Nabiki shook her head. "I wish I knew. Why fake your own death only   
to come back a few months later? There's got to be some reason to it.   
Nobody does something that expensive for nothing."   
Akane had relaxed long ago and was in the middle of eating her   
lunch. "Could be he didn't have much choice." She thought, munching on   
dough as she did so.   
Nabiki heard her. Sword wounds, the blood feud. A theory clicked   
within her mind. "Okay, sis. Try this on for size. These families have   
been fighting for most of our lives, longer than I care to think about,   
even if it isn't something ancient. Say that Ranma gets caught by Kuno,   
the two fight, and Kuno wins. He's too spoiled to check the body   
properly, so he gets one of his servants to do it. Well, if *I* were   
badly wounded and I had the cash on hand I'd bribe a servant or two to   
get me out of there. Some good surgery and two months would be about   
enough time to heal, wouldn't it?"   
Akane shook her head, having experience with martial arts injuries.   
"Sword wounds bad enough to look deadly don't heal that fast. But in   
two months he could move a bit."   
Nabiki thought back to watching Ranma jump over their wall. She   
would classify that as more than `a bit.' 

Ranma sipped hot tea as the household fussed about him. Warm   
blankets, food, medical attention, everything had come flowing his   
direction and he wasn't allowed to say boo about it.   
The family doctor had been brought in and pronounced the head wound   
minor. Then he'd proceeded to thoroughly examine Ranma, after the boy   
had been moved to his room, of course.   
So Ranma sat, with a bandage on his face, and thought about what   
his mother had told him. Pops was dead, gone. Somehow he couldn't bring   
himself to tears about it. Somehow all this wishing had made reality   
itself too strange. He didn't feel much, as if he were just waiting to   
make another wish and watch reality change all over again.   
Mourning someone when you could reasonably expect to see them again   
in a few hours seemed pointless.   
Except he wouldn't be leaving. The bracelet was all used up. Still,   
the whole thing didn't seem real enough to mourn over. It had been   
awhile since he'd seen his father as more than a sparring partner, and   
an annoying one at that.   
He decided not to worry about it. He'd better concentrate on how to   
integrate himself to this place. His success on that still left   
something to be desired, and he didn't have anywhere else to go.   
Suddenly he grew tired of bed rest. He'd had enough of that and he   
wasn't learning anything. Slipping back into his clothes he noticed, by   
his bed clock, that school was going to let out soon at Furinkan.   
If he knew Nabiki at all, she'd have learned alot in one day. He   
decided to pay her a visit. 

Amy looked up from her computer. "Bad news, guys. I'm reading   
another energy signature, from a suburb of Tokyo we've never been   
before. One called Nerima."   
Lita sat up. "Could it be the Negaverse?"   
Amy typed, then chewed her lower lip. "It's like nothing I've ever   
seen from them, but it could be."   
Rae stopped trying to steal her Sailor-V comic back from Serena,   
who raspberried her and continued reading. "This wouldn't be the first   
time they've pulled something new on us."   
"Maybe you girls should check it out." Luna suggested.   
"Awwwww! But this was just starting to get *good!*" Serena whined. 

Nodoka came in with a cup of Swiss chocolate for her son, only to   
find the room empty and the window curtains billowing.   
She swiftly set down the tray and glanced above his bed, turning   
white as a sheet. "Oh, Ranma! How could you have left your sword!" 

Ranma leapt down to the lawn of Furinkan just as the final bell   
sounded the end of school. He didn't know what school it was he went to   
in this reality, but since his mother hadn't seemed too concerned about   
trundling him off to class he'd decided not to worry about it for now.   
Students began pouring out of the building with eagerness that   
never seemed to change, no matter how much else was different around   
them. True to form, Nabiki was late out of the crowd, taking up a place   
where she would be available for private business.   
He leapt down before her. 

Nabiki was just getting prepared for her afternoon setup when Ranma   
suddenly appeared before her. The shock was so great that she dropped   
her books, turning white and stiff as she saw him.   
Ranma stopped what he was about to ask her and instead looked   
concerned. Akane saw her sister in such a state and ran up to her,   
accusing Ranma. "What have you *done* to her!"   
Ranma backpedaled, waving his hands. "Hey! I haven't done   
anything!"   
He would surely have continued but Nabiki chose that moment to   
explode. "What are you *doing* here! Don't you realize that this is the   
school Kuno goes to?!?"   
Ranma took it in stride. "Yeah. So what?"   
"Indeed." Spoke up a familiar voice. The crowd parted to reveal   
Kuno, in full attire, standing with a steel katana held at ready   
against Ranma. "How is it that the cretinous Saotome finds the audacity   
to invade the very premises on which stand my holy feet? Have you no   
regard for life? Very well! Since you have so little care of it, I will   
relieve you of the burden life bestows!"   
Ranma looked over his shoulder, unconcerned. "Kuno, you sound dumb   
when   
your spouting other peoples' poetry. Don't try to make stuff up. You   
don't do it well, and you just end up looking *more* stupid. Which it's   
hard to believe that's possible."   
Kuno raged, and the entire student body dissolved in awe of the   
newcomer. It was an awe they gave from a distance, but they gave it   
more fully than they'd ever done before.   
Nabiki recovered herself and hissed into Ranma's ear. "Hey, get   
away now, while you can. I'll delay Kuno while you run for it." She had   
no idea why she was doing this, she had no idea why she was doing it   
for free either. She didn't even have an idea *how* she'd do it. But in   
her intent she found herself totally sincere.   
Ranma brushed it off. "Thanks Nabiki, but I'll take care of this.   
Beating up Kuno is *just* the thing for my mood right now."   
"How DARE you try and mock me!" Kuno spat venomously. "Pull forth   
your sword, evil one, and feel the might of the great Blue Thunder!" He   
raised his sword and lightning pealed in the background.   
Ranma cocked an eyebrow. Very impressive, but after who knows how   
many lives he'd learned how the kendoist did it. In fact he'd learned   
alot in that time. Ranma cracked his knuckles. Yes, pounding Kuno into   
the pavement was exactly what he needed to work off some stress.   
Ranma drew his chi in just a bit, and struck a pose. Instead of   
lightning or thunder, drums began to sound. Big drums beating out a   
powerful cadence, with horns joining in soon after. It was the "Anvil   
of Crom," intro music to Conan the Barbarian, and one of Ranma's   
favorite pieces of music.   
"Well Kuno, I figure that since Musashi defeated three masters of   
the sword, with wood against steel, that I can handle *you* easily   
enough bare handed."   
Ranma stood in a very wide circle, all alone, after that comment.   
Not that everyone wasn't impressed, they were, they just preferred to   
admire that kind of bravery from a distance.   
Kuno raged. "Very well, villain! Feel the wrath of the Great   
Tatewaki Kuno!" And with that he stabbed forth into the space occupied   
by Ranma's head. Ranma was no longer there, of course, so Kuno turned   
the thrust into a slash, pivoting to track the fleeing knave. But Ranma   
had already ducked the blow and landed a fist into Kuno's kidneys.   
Kuno went down, but rather than press his advantage Ranma just   
stood there, waiting for the kendoist to recover. 

Akane had pulled her sister to the side. Questions raged within   
her, but none of the answers were coming. She held onto her sister's   
arm, preventing Nabiki from leaping into the fight as Kuno attempted to   
spear the other boy's head.   
"What are you DOING?" She hissed, trembling herself at the   
viciousness of Kuno's attacks.   
"You don't understand." Nabiki panted, not caring that she herself   
didn't either. "That's RANMA out there!"   
Akane nearly let go of her arm in shock. Ranma? As in the guy Kuno   
was trying to kill? What in the world was he doing here!? Didn't he   
even care that Kuno wouldn't hesitate to strike lethal blows before   
witnesses? 

Tatewaki could not understand it. Here, the wretched Saotome he had   
defeated not two months before, was defeating his moves almost   
casually! Yet he was not even wielding his own sword! He spun a great   
circle and launched another dozen blows at the agile fiend, but not one   
so much as grazed the monster's clothes.   
Tatewaki could hardly stand it. Could it be that he had allowed   
himself to relax in so short a time that his techniques were now   
useless?   
Ranma dodged another blow. Kuno launched another technique at him,   
but he evaded effortlessly. The students stood like rocks as the two   
battled, unable to move for fear of dispelling the illusion before   
them. Some guy was not only fighting Kuno, but he was winning?   
Not only was he winning but he seemed to be enjoying himself   
immeasurably. One of Kuno's blows split the stone pavement on which   
he'd been standing, yet the newcomer dodged it with hardly a concern.   
Tatewaki couldn't stand another moment of this injustice. Here,   
this knave had the audacity to confront him! A big drop of sweat   
coursed his brow. And the knave was winning!   
Kuno experience a brief moment of doubt. His opponent had never   
been this good before. They had faced each other across their blades   
too many times to count, and always he, Kuno, had been the victor. How   
could the tables have turned so swiftly?   
Then the answer came to him. Black Magic. Sad that even so fallen a   
samurai as a Saotome would stoop to it, but it was obvious that the   
wretched fiend had.   
A small smile of victory spread across Kuno's face. He had his own   
answer to magic. 

The combatants sprang apart, Ranma covering a distance that only a   
gazelle should rightly have been able to cross.   
"Fiend!" Tatewaki spat. "So you have descended to the level of the   
basest criminal. You DARE to employ sorcery against my person! Feel   
then the wrath of the sword of my ancestors! Blue Thunder Attack!!!"   
Kuno whipped his sword down, lightning appearing from the end to   
crash against a tree where Ranma had been only a moment before. The   
tree toppled and fell, burning in every limb and branch.   
"Hey, not bad." Ranma called from atop the school wall. "It's not a   
patch on what *I've* learned, but not bad." He jumped down, savoring   
the moment. "Anyway, Kuno. Who'd need sorcery to defeat someone like   
you?"   
"Fiend!" Kuno struck out with lightning again, but again hit only   
air.   
Ranma came to land behind him, annoyed. "Hey, Kuno! Watch what   
you're doing with that thing. You could hurt somebody by accident."   
"Accident!" Kuno screamed. "How can it be accident when that is   
exactly my intention!" He lashed out with energy again, this time   
scarring the building.   
"Hey man, I'd have thought you would have cared about your   
classmates and all. Your attack is more dangerous to them than it is to   
me."   
Kuno struck a fourth time and Ranma dodged. But he was getting   
vastly annoyed. Kuno could really hurt someone like this. He gritted   
his teeth. Looked like it was about time to take this guy out. Nothing   
permanent, but he'd have to make sure to do it in one blow.   
When he landed he had exactly the right move, too.   
Ranma assumed a battle stance. "Okay, Kuno. I've let you have your   
fun, but you're endangering innocent people and I won't put up with   
it."   
Kuno struck out again and Ranma just sidestepped, allowing the bolt   
to take out a chunk of wall. 

Akane was having difficulty believing what she was seeing. Kuno was   
wrecking the place and Ranma not only wasn't harmed, he wasn't   
sweating! In fact his only concern seemed to be the danger Kuno was   
putting *them* in!   
Come to think of it. With Kuno thrashing lightning around they were   
in a bit of trouble. So far he'd caused only property damage, but   
pretty soon he'd accidentally kill some people.   
In spite of that Akane couldn't bear to draw herself away. Watching   
this young man fight was incredible! It was like seeing one of the   
Sailor Scouts battles on TV, only this was right in front of them!   
Nabiki sagged limp against her sister, drooling. Her eyes never   
left the lithe body leaping and cavorting before Kuno's flashing   
strikes. Nor was she alone in this, as more than half the girls at   
Furinkan High followed her example. 

Ranma drew himself to his full height. Somehow he couldn't help but   
brag, and found himself quoting his teacher, repeating her words from   
memory. "Behold, a secret technique developed over three thousand years   
of Chinese Amazon history! A technique so powerful that even the last   
emperor of the So dynasty lived in terror of it. Chestnuts Roasting   
Over an Open Fire!!"   
He threw 498 blows in the space of a second, landing enough on the   
kendoist to send his body flying through the air and impact on the   
building, only the kendoist hadn't moved.   
Kuno stood there, his katana glowing with red hot heat. He hadn't   
parried the blows, they came too fast to even see, but he was unhurt   
all the same.   
Kuno snorted. "So at last the pitiful Saotome makes an assault.   
Pity it will do you no good, wretched one, as this blade defeats all   
your actions against me."   
Ranma noted the heat of the blade, that hadn't come from the   
lightning, he'd seen it take that no problem. He smirked, figuring a   
way to beat this.   
Ranma threw himself into the proper stance. "Well Kuno, I must say   
I am impressed. Too bad it's the sword I'm impressed with. *You* only   
make me feel sick." Drawing upon his increased knowledge he brought his   
battle aura to full force, glowing blue on the darkening field.   
Despite the danger, students closed the circles around them just a   
little, too enthralled by the spectacle to be wary.   
"I regret using it on such as you, but the sword makes a worthy   
opponent even if you don't. Feel now the ultimate technique of the   
Saotome School of Anything Goes martial Arts!" Ranma brought his hands   
down like wings, then struck powerfully forward. "Dragon Fist!"   
A huge, ghostly dragon shape roared up from his outstretched fist.   
The pavement curdled and split in its path as is shot across the yard,   
streaking forward to explode against Tatewaki Kuno. The kendoist   
struggled an instant, then lost as his sword failed and the energy   
tossed him backward above the school building, the cooling remnants of   
his molten sword flying off into space. 

Venus looked down on the aftermath of the battle. She and the other   
scouts were perched high on a nearby roof. She looked back at Mercury.   
"So, was that it?" She asked, feeling a bit miffed at seeing someone   
else handle something the Scouts had been called together for.   
Mercury activated her visor, taking readings. "No, it wasn't. The   
source of energy I'm reading was not the man or the sword, it was his   
enemy."   
"He sure has alot of power. But is he evil?" Jupiter pressed.   
"He has to be from somewhere. That sword was powerful, and beating   
it couldn't have been easy." Venus asserted. "Could he be another child   
of the Moon Kingdom?"   
Mercury resumed typing. "I don't think so. It's been a long time   
but... Oh! Gang, I'm getting a strong reading about three miles from   
here. It looks like another monster has popped out of the Negaverse!"   
Sailor Moon stopped staring at the hunk they'd been tracking.   
"What! Oh!" She sweetened. "Look guys, lets just leave this guy alone   
for awhile. We've got real negacreeps waiting!"   
Mars considered. "Well, okay. But I still say we should come back   
and check more on this guy later."   
Instant jealousy-fest. "Yeah, well don't forget *I'm* the one who   
saw him first!" Sailor Moon said.   
"Oh. You mean the same one who claims exclusive rights to Tuxedo   
Mask and Andrew?" Mars quipped.   
"Ya got *that* right." Sailor Moon gloated, and they all sped away. 

Ranma stood, relaxing, at one end of a blackened trench. That *had*   
felt good. He knew it was a little weird, but he was glad Kuno had that   
magic sword. The extra danger had been just the thing to get him   
feeling better.   
The students around him were still immobile, unable to believe what   
they had seen. He shrugged. Yeah, it hadn't been bad.   
He was about to seek out Nabiki again and collect the stuff he'd   
come for when wind began gusting across the schoolyard, and the beating   
of propellers heralded the arrival of a helicopter. He looked up to see   
a sleek combat variant, a three seater, swoop in above the trees, its   
weapon pods traversing the area.   
Ranma was considering whether to blow it or to duck for cover when   
he saw his mom in the rearmost seat. She was waving to him wildly, then   
signaled for the pilot to land. Between her and the pilot was an empty   
seat.   
Ranma sighed. There was no way Nabiki was going to do business   
under the guns of that thing, and it was just as clear his mother was   
pulling out stops to come get him. He spared a look at Nabiki, he   
*needed* more info. But it was obvious he wasn't going to have the   
opportunity right then.   
With a leap and a grab Ranma was on the side of the low flying   
helicopter, standing on a skid just before the wing. His mom   
practically fainted, but he signaled the pilot up and watched as   
Furinkan fell away beneath his feet. Then he clamored inside. 

Tatewaki came to awareness in a blackened crater with smoldering   
flesh. His first thought was how to punish Sasuke for having let his   
bedroom get in such a state, then he sat bolt upright.   
"I have been defeated in combat!" He cried out in surprise. For a   
moment he experienced a guilty gratitude that his sword had absorbed   
most of that blast. He could see the state he was in and knew that he   
had been flung clear over the school building by the force of that   
blow. To have absorbed it all would have meant the end to the great   
Kuno name.   
He clenched his fist in shame. "Oh! To be defeated by a Saotome.   
Surely, my ancestors must rend the heavens with their cries!" He wept   
tears of shame.   
Kuno sprang to his feet, ignoring the pain it caused. "Curse you,   
Saotome!" 

The combat helicopter came to rest on a landing pad at the Saotome   
estate, the occupants exited while the vehicle itself was lowered into   
an underground hanger.   
Nodoka allowed her son to get inside before her, then seized his   
arm and dragged him back to his room. When the door was closed safely   
behind them she blazed.   
"Ranma! How DARE you leave this property unarmed? Do you know what   
you would have done if Kuno had caught you? You would have *died*   
that's what! He's not so honorable that he would have let you pass. And   
what were you doing at that school!? You DO know that's where Kuno goes   
to class don't you? Were you expecting him to give you flowers?"   
Ranma listened to his mother rage at him. He'd been a blockhead for   
most of his life, but survival had finally beaten most of that out of   
him. When he'd fought Kuno he hadn't been listening to *any* of the   
clues people were giving him. He should have figured it out that the   
`former him' would have been toasted by Kuno easily. And what had he   
been doing bragging?   
Ranma remonstrated himself as a fool, while his mother did the   
same. The pair of them were interrupted by a gentle knock on the door.   
Nodoka pulled herself together instantly. There was this polite   
fiction between servant and host in the great houses. The former   
pretended not to see anything and the latter pretended that there   
wasn't anything there to see. Still, both sides politely ignored the   
other during those moments when control lapsed.   
Nodoka opened the door. Standing there was Priory, the head butler.   
She calmed herself, Priory, of all people, could be counted on not to   
intrude on this kind of moment easily.   
"Yes, what is it Priory?"   
The head butler bowed. "Excuse me, Madam, but there is a young lady   
here to see Ranma."   
Nodoka nearly steamed. Thinking for a moment that it was foolish.   
She was at the point of berating Priory for his interruption when he   
continued on to add.   
"She seemed very *interesting*, my lady. Perhaps you should see   
her."   
Nodoka calmed. Priory would not place a stress on *anything* unless   
it was important. He had been calm when her family died around her. She   
nodded. "Show her in." 

Nabiki allowed herself to be led through the Saotome mansion. The   
dollar value of some of the paintings alone was enough to send thrills   
down her spine. She'd never seriously expected to see that kind of   
wealth in a home, though it had been gratifying to keep their dojo   
solvent.   
Solvent was another thing, this was *opulent!* And money sometimes   
turned her on. Not with Kuno, but a fat cash wallet did tend to jingle   
in her ears.   
The butler, Priory (she was always careful about learning names -   
If you don't know them you can't drop them), led her to a room off one   
of the major halls. It opened just long enough to allow her to enter,   
which she did, then she was alone with the lady of the house and Ranma.   
Nabiki got a little weak in the knees. There were those who said   
nothing could impress her. But she was also the daughter of a poor   
family who knew just enough about martial arts to know what can't   
ordinarily be done.   
So far there was very little she'd thought impossible that Ranma   
hadn't done. Beating Kuno with that Dragon Fist of his, then flying   
away on a late model assault helicopter.   
Nabiki was impressed. 

Nodoka examined the young girl. Shell struck, obviously. She   
politely cleared her throat, then cleared it again when that didn't get   
her attention.   
Ranma solved the problem by skipping over to the girl and putting   
his hand on her arm.   
"Hey, Nabiki. You okay?"   
The Tendo girl shook herself free of her bewilderment, trying not   
to notice how Ranma's hand felt on her arm. "Oh! I'm sorry." Her brain   
hiccupped and she forgot what she was going to say.   
Nodoka smiled. "Priory says that you have something very   
interesting to show us." She said, prompting the girl.   
Ranma had led her to a couch, where Nabiki finally got her wits   
back about her. "Oh, yeah. Well, it was after that fight with Kuno."   
Ranma's mother almost lost her balance. She gripped a bedpost for   
support. "I'm sorry. What fight with Kuno?"   
Nabiki beamed. "You mean you didn't see it? Well, how could you   
have, you got there later. Ranma took on Kuno today, at the gates of   
our high school."   
Nodoka sat down on the footboard.   
Nabiki didn't notice. "Oh! It was incredible! I've never seen   
anyone move like that." She went on to cover the major details of the   
fight in glowing favor of Ranma, not forgetting to dwell on some of the   
more powerful moves she'd seen.   
She wrapped it up, "I think the whole school thought he was toast   
when Kuno started flinging lightning bolts at him. But Kuno just   
couldn't seem to hit him, in spite of his magic sword. Then Ranma told   
him to cut it out, because the rest of us were in danger, but Kuno   
wouldn't listen. So Ranma pulled out this Chinese Amazon technique he'd   
learned. Chestnuts Roasting, or something. And it Roasted! I could tell   
he hit Kuno about five hundred times with that one technique, all in   
less time than it took to blink!"   
Nabiki glowed as she concluded. "Well, even though it didn't work   
it was impressive. So Ranma followed up with that Dragon Fist thing of   
yours. I'd never seen anything like it in my life! Well, after he'd   
flung Kuno over the school with it I went and found his sword. I hear   
you guys send these to the family to let them know someone's been   
defeated. And I didn't want you to miss your chance. I've never seen   
*anyone* get defeated as badly as Kuno did today!"   
Finishing proudly she unwrapped the bundle she carried. The sword   
within was distorted and warped, marked where beads of metal had run   
like droplets, but it was indisputably Kuno's ancestral blade.   
The bedpost snapped in Nodoka's hand. Her eyelids twitched and she   
bigsweated.   
Nabiki couldn't resist adding a final touch. "And he did it all   
bare handed!"   
Nodoka shot from her seat and hovered over Ranma, flames burning   
across her shoulders.   
"Okay, son, you have *exactly* three seconds to begin coughing up   
an explanation for all this! You've never fought without a sword your   
whole life! How does it happen that you just seem to have defeated Kuno   
that way? He's killed your father and almost killed you!"   
Ranma took it calmly. "Okay, mother, I'll explain." He said   
soothingly, then turned to Nabiki. "I will accept your word that none   
of what I am about to say shall ever get repeated."   
Nabiki nodded, but she cautioned. "Uh, I don't mean to accuse or   
anything. But I have heard that the walls in big houses have ears."   
The Saotomes looked at each other. The fiction between servant and   
host was a fiction, nothing more. There could easily be any number of   
listeners to their conversation.   
"There really isn't anything private..." Nodoka ventured, thinking   
of all the secret rooms and places they either couldn't reveal to a   
stranger or weren't truly secure.   
"We could always go to my place?" Nabiki ventured.   
Ranma shook his head. "No. I mean, I'd love to go and all but I   
don't think it'd be safe from Sasuke."   
Everyone looked blank. "Who's Sasuke?"   
Ranma flushed, hoping he wasn't lying. "He's Kuno's pet ninja. I've   
caught him sneaking under floorboards, hiding behind walls, even in   
people's trash sometimes. If he knew we were at your house there'd be   
no keeping him from hearing everything."   
Nabiki blinked. "Then why did you come this morning?"   
Ranma blushed and extemporized. "Because there was no way he'd know   
I was coming."   
Nodoka's brain was spinning. There was so much that was new flowing   
at her all at once. She crystallized. "Alright, if what my son says is   
true then Kuno would have no reason to suspect we were going. Since   
this house is compromised, young lady, we shall go to yours. Ranma, do   
not forget your sword this time." 

Seeing as how secrecy was their only value in going there, they   
took no guards and a roundabout route to the Tendo home. But, again,   
seeing as how that secrecy was not certain, Nodoka made sure they kept   
a trio of fast-attack squads within a thirty second alert distance.   
Ranma assured them that he could stop just about anything for that   
long, at least.   
Ranma opened the door to the Tendo home with a casualness that   
alarmed both women, and he tossed his shoes off into the correct place   
without even looking. "I'd prefer to talk in one of the upstairs rooms,   
rather than in the dojo." He assured Nabiki.   
Kasumi came around the corner, having heard the door open. "Oh, my.   
We have visitors. Nabiki would you care to show your friends into the   
parlor?"   
Nabiki waved the offer aside. "That's alright, Kasumi. We were just   
stopping by so I could get a few things from my room. Why don't you   
come up, both of you?" She addressed the two. Both nodded and they   
headed up with her.   
Kasumi put a hand to her face. She knew that was the young man who   
had been to see Nabiki that morning, and the woman with him was   
obviously his mother. Kasumi's eyes sparkled with tears. Could it be   
that Nabiki finally had a boyfriend? But, why would his mother be here   
unless... Oh! And they wanted to talk privately...   
Kasumi hurried to the kitchen to prepare the formal tea things.   
Nabiki could be getting betrothed! 

Ranma was first up the stairs and went straight to the right room,   
barely glancing at the sign on the door for confirmation. Once inside   
he pulled out the chair for his mother, and took the foot of the bed   
for his seat, leaving Nabiki to wander in and sit at the bed's head,   
all the time in wonder about how he knew her home so well...   
Ranma waited for Nabiki to sit down, and noticed she was still in   
her school things. He shook himself. "Sorry, Nabiki. I just rushed in   
here. Look, if you want to get changed I could wait outside."   
Nabiki considered telling him that it wasn't important, then it   
occurred to her that it would give her a moment alone with his mother.   
"Sure, Ranma. That's very considerate of you."   
Ranma tossed her a grin and bounded out the room, opening and   
closing the door in the middle of a flying leap.   
Nabiki shook her hair out. "I'd give anything to know how he did   
that."   
Nodoka nodded her head in wonder. "So would I." 

Ranma stood at the top of the stairs, leaning over the rail. It   
felt so good to him to be back in familiar surroundings. He heard the   
front door open and shut, without ceremony, without fanfare. That   
spelled Akane. Sure enough, moments later, she was headed up the   
stairs, eyes down, deep in thought.   
"Hey, sleepy head!" He called down to her.   
Akane jerked in surprise, nearly dropping her books. What she saw   
up on the landing shocked her again, and she began to topple backward   
in a light faint.   
Ranma saw it happening, and knew that her light faint could swiftly   
become heavy bruises. Leaping down to the stairs just below her he held   
her and steadied her.   
"Hey, I just didn't want you tripping over me. You looked like you   
were lost in the clouds there."   
Akane *had* been lost in the clouds, she admitted to herself. And   
the thing that had sent her there was thinking about *him!* After the   
fight that day, watching him defeat Kuno, *KUNO* with unarmed combat.   
She'd been thinking about him without pause.   
Akane leaned into him, almost expecting to be carried to the top of   
the stairs, but he just steadied her, so she reluctantly resumed her   
own support. "Those were some pretty fancy moves there." She smiled up   
at him, liking the way being higher on the stairs brought her eyes   
equal to his. "I saw you beat Kuno today."   
Ranma nodded, pleased. "Thanks, Akane."   
Shock rippled her again. "You... you know my name?!"   
He nodded, swift to recover from his mistake. "Sure. I was doing   
business with Nabiki when Kuno attacked. Afterwards she brought his   
sword over to my house. I guess I must have asked her then."   
Akane's eyes swam. He'd asked her name! That must mean that he   
liked her! Yes, she could see it in his eyes! She nearly swooned.   
Ranma caught her as she wavered. "Hey, maybe you'd better lie down.   
You look pretty..." He paused. What to say? Pretty exhausted? Pretty   
tired? She looked all red. Maybe she was running a fever? He decided   
he'd better help her upstairs. Sweeping her up in his arms he carried   
her to the top in a single bound, worked the knob on her door with the   
toes of one foot, and deposited her on her bed.   
"You stay there and rest. I'll go tell Kasumi that your feeling a   
little faint."   
Akane nodded, giddy and in love. He'd called her pretty! 

Kasumi finished with the tea things and covered the set with a   
cloth. That way all would be ready in case they needed it, and no one   
would comment if they happened to peer into the kitchen.   
She finished and then noticed that dinner was boiling. She had   
become so occupied with her thoughts of Nabiki's hoped-for happiness   
that she had neglected their normal meal.   
Bringing herself back to rights she began to deal with the pot, but   
a meal, once neglected, takes some getting back under control. In her   
haste to cover the noodles she knocked over a bottle of cooking oil.   
With steely determination she avoided going after it in haste,   
leaving it at her feet for just the two seconds required for the meal   
to begin behaving for her again. Then she bent to recover it. It had   
left a large puddle, she was going to have to...   
Ranma dashed into the kitchen. Seeing Kasumi he tried to come to a   
stop, only to have his feet shoot out from under him. He'd fought on   
ice, in plowing rain, and even on oil before, but there was literally   
no time to recover. He managed to absorb most of his shock with a well   
placed kick to the counter, but he still ended up knocking Kasumi down   
on top of him.   
He caught her arms to break her fall as best he could. She landed   
on top of him, her face a few inches from his. He took only an instant   
to take stock, seeing if she had any broken bones or injuries, but in   
that instant a cloth came fluttering down off the counter and draped   
over both their heads.   
Soun Tendo chose that exact moment to enter the kitchen. "Kasumi,   
are you done with dinner yet? Hello, what's this?"   
Soun took stock. There was his daughter, lying atop a young man on   
their kitchen floor. One was evidently holding the other, and their   
heads were close together under a small sheet.   
Kasumi raised her face, causing the cloth to fall behind her   
shoulders, revealing both youngsters' features. "Oh, hello father." she   
said. Both their faces were red with embarrassment. Then Soun noticed   
the formal tea set, all set up for an engagement ritual.   
He averted his eyes and laughed. "Oh, don't mind me. I was just   
checking to... to see when dinner would be done! But come to think of   
it, I'm not that hungry. Take your time, you two." He wandered off,   
eager to call his friend and tell him the good news.   
Ranma released Kasumi and they both separated, afraid to speak.   
"I'm sorry, Kasumi." Ranma related, both were beet red and gazing   
down at the floor. "I came rushing in to tell you that Akane may be   
sick. She nearly fainted on the stairs."   
For Kasumi everything could be resolved by polite apology and an   
attention to manners. She nodded, grateful that this young man had   
them.   
Ranma, not knowing what else to do and anxious to make things   
right, went to the broom closet and took out a bucket and cleaning   
rags. In less time than it took to say "Oh, my!" He had the floor   
clean. Then he was helping Kasumi to her feet.   
"I'm sorry about the mess..." Ranma struggled for something more he   
could do. Upsetting Kasumi was right down on the end of his list right   
next to seppuku, among the things he would do nearly anything to avoid.   
He spied the cookpots, once again creeping out of control. "Hey,   
let me help you with this!" In a trice he was aproned and handling the   
utensils expertly, rescuing dinner from being nearly burned.   
Kasumi smiled in gratitude. Then noticed that their clothes were   
all soaked with oil. "Oh, please let me do that. You've done so much   
already. Why don't you go get a change of clothes? Or you could use our   
bath. I could wash the set you are wearing..."   
Ranma couldn't help but grin. The Tendo bath was where he'd had   
more misunderstandings than any other place else he could name. "Thanks   
Kasumi, but I wasn't planning on staying that long, and you need a   
change as badly as I do. Why don't you go up and do that, then you   
could check up on Akane while I finish up here?"   
Kasumi smiled. What a sweet man. Nabiki was so lucky! 

Nabiki finished changing. She'd learned alot from Ranma's mother to   
confirm what she already knew about him, and that placed her in a good   
mood for when she opened the door to retrieve him.   
Nabiki frowned, looking at the landing. She'd expected him to be   
there...   
Kasumi drifted purposefully by, her clothes stained and darkening.   
She was holding a robe and towel. "If you're looking for Ranma, I'm   
afraid we had a little accident down in the kitchen. He's down there   
cleaning up."   
Nabiki nodded. "Are you headed for the bath?"   
Kasumi nodded brightly. "Yes, I am. I'm afraid I spilled some oil.   
Ranma was very sweet about it, even after we both slipped in it. I   
offered to let him use our bath to clean himself but he insisted that I   
go first. Wasn't that nice of him?"   
When a confused Nabiki mumbled "Sure" Kasumi nodded, certain she   
had brought them closer by explaining everything. Humming happily to   
herself, she went to start her bath.   
Nodoka added her confusion to Nabiki's. 

"Wow, Kasumi wasn't kidding about you slipping in oil. You're   
drenched!"   
Ranma glanced over his shoulder at the two entering the kitchen.   
"Oh, Hi! Mom, Nabiki, come on in. I've cleaned up the puddle."   
Whistling happily he deftly forked out a noodle to sample. "Hmm, still   
too early yet."   
The ladies watched in wonder as he used one foot to open a cabinet   
and hook out a strainer, while one hand pulled down a serving bowl and   
the other continued to stir. All the while while he was concentrating   
on reading the recipe Kasumi had laid out.   
"It's like watching an octopus at work." Nabiki wondered.   
Nodoka just looked on, bewildered. "Son, when did you learn how to   
cook?"   
He looked back at her, balancing a salad bowl on his head while he   
casually chopped vegetables that flipped miraculously up into it.   
"Uh, could I explain that a little later?"   
She nodded numbly.   
"Good, `cause I've noticed that people usually scream when I start   
to do that, and I wouldn't want the dessert souffle to fall. I'm fixing   
it up kind of as an apology for running into Kasumi. Anyone care for   
some divinity while they wait?"   
Nodoka sat down.   
Nabiki leaned forward, correcting him. "We don't have any divinity,   
Ranma, unless Kasumi picked up some while she was out."   
He shrugged happily. "I whipped up a batch. I have some friends who   
taught me these amazing cooking techniques, but that's all for later."   
He trailed off, happily content to be doing no less than three   
impossible things at once.   
Nabiki found that she had to sit down too.   
"Um, Ranma." Nodoka asked, more timidly than was her wont. "Why   
don't you serve us some tea?"   
Nabiki didn't notice, being lost in her own thoughts, or she would   
have informed Ranma's mother that that was their formal tea set. 

To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

I wrote it. I like it. I got positive feedback from the person   
who's opinion I care about. I stole indiscriminately from any source   
that amused me. And post this merely for your enjoyment, if you care to   
enjoy it. Otherwise you can go boil your heads in a bucket of Jusenkyo   
water.   
I know next to nothing about Japanese culture, made no effort to   
keep the character true to the originals, and generally acted casually   
about the whole thing.   
What do you expect? This is a fan fiction. Not a famous art   
display. I do this to have fun, not to make anyone else happy. People   
who get their shorts all tight over minor stuff should recall that this   
is, after all, a recreation.   
I wouldn't do this if I didn't like to do it. 

And I love to do it. 

Flames, lawsuits and hatemail can be directed to   
lawbreakers@whitehouse.gov 

If you want to reach me I can be gotten ahold of at skysaber, which is   
at qwest dot net. I don't spell it out in order to confuse the robots   
seeking prey for their spam. 


	2. 2

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Two   
True Love, again and again... 

by Jared Ornstead 

My Stolen Disclaimer   
Ranma 1/2 property of Takahashi Rumiko, Sailormoon property of Takeuchi   
Naoko. 

************************************************   
"Uh, mom? I think that's their formal tea set. Nabiki's kinda nice   
and all, but I'd like to think about it before getting engaged to her."   
Surprise shook Nodoka out of her trance.   
Nabiki gazed down at the table in embarrassment. She found that she   
wouldn't have minded at all if he *had* served her the tea.   
Akane drifted into the kitchen, dreamy eyed. "Hello everybody." She   
drifted over to the counter. "Kasumi, when..."   
Her haze didn't exactly shatter, it just flowed in new directions as   
she saw her Ranma once again appear before her, in a place where she did   
not expect him. "Hi." She murmured.   
Ranma, with a swirl and a flourish, pulled a completed meal out of   
the pans and transferred it to the serving dishes. He casually tossed a   
handful of shrimp in the air, and they landed as the final garnish on   
the plates, all perfectly arranged.   
He stretched. "I *love* doing that." Then he winked at Akane. "You   
awake this time?"   
She shook her head no, entranced and happy. 

The Sailor Scouts finished with the monster, a grotesque green thing   
that kept sprouting tentacles.   
Mercury sat down, wiping her forehead with her arm. "My. That was   
tough work!"   
Jupiter, standing with her arms crossed, agreed. "Yeah, not exactly my   
favorite way to begin a weekend, you know?" She relaxed and leaned   
against a wall. "I should be studying right now."   
The others looked at her in amazement.   
Jupiter shrugged, then laughed. "For my gymnastics class. There are   
some new moves I have to learn, and I don't have anyone to teach me."   
Sailor Moon puddled herself on the floor, a profusion of arms and   
legs that hardly looked human. "I'm *sooo* hungry!" She bounced to her   
feet. "Hey, guys, why don't we go to that new restaurant in town?"   
Mercury shook her head. "Can't afford it. Besides, we should really   
be checking back on that boy we were tracking earlier."   
Everyone groaned, but Mars' eyes sparkled. "Yeah, I mean, maybe   
he'll turn out to be a hunk and invite us all to eat or something!" 

The table was set, and the whole Tendo family gathered around it,   
staring at the profusion of dishes. "Wow! Ranma, you really cooked up a   
storm." Nabiki praised the young man.   
Ranma accepted the compliment, but was getting nervous. Something   
was about to happen. He could feel it. Taking his mother by the hand he   
said. "Hey Nabiki, I don't think we ought to..."   
Soun Tendo appeared out of nowhere, having finally finished up on   
the phone. Wrapping himself around Ranma's waist he cried. "My boy! I   
want to thank you for making my daughter happy. I want you to know you   
can call me `Father.' Please take care of my darling girl!"   
Nodoka had slowly made the change from finding these unexpected   
things about her son upsetting, to being heartily amused by them. She   
used her hold on her son's hand to haul him back down to a sitting   
position.   
"Now, Mr. Tendo. How very kind of you. Would you mind explaining to   
me just how my son is making Nabiki happy?"   
Akane, missing the gist of the entire conversation because of her   
rosy haze, caught only her father's announcement and flung herself onto   
Ranma. "Oh, Yes! Ranma! I *will* marry you!"   
Ranma had new self control, but this exceeded it. He spurted out of   
the arms of both Tendos like a wet banana, screaming. "Arrggghhhh!!!!   
Look Mr. Tendo, I have no..."   
Kasumi chose that moment to enter, her hair slightly damp and   
wearing a clean house dress. She also happened to be right under Ranma's   
intended flight path. Not about to run into the same Tendo daughter   
twice in one day he flipped around in mid air, skimming by her by   
inches.   
Unfortunately, Kasumi had no martial arts reflexes. She flinched,   
and the folds of her skirt caught the passing Ranma, and absorbed enough   
of his momentum to send them both to the floor in a tangle.   
Kasumi popped up into a sitting position, aware of their position   
and crying. "Oh, Ranma! What will this do to your engagement with   
Nabiki?"   
Ranma did the only thing he could reasonably do under the   
circumstances. He fainted. 

Walking home that evening Ranma tried hard not to look at his   
mother. Her face was filled with mirth.   
"So how did it happen again?" Nodoka prompted.   
Ranma sighed. "I've told it all before. I was helping Kasumi because   
I'd run into her telling her that Akane was sick."   
"Akane didn't *look* like she was ill." His mother teased.   
"I caught her fainting on the stairs, okay? I was worried about her,   
so I carried her up to her room."   
"So that part she said about being alone with you in her room was   
right?" Her eyes sparkled with mischief.   
"Yes, I mean No! I mean I never had my arms around her, or nothing.   
She was just making that up!"   
"If you didn't put your arms around her then how did you carry her?"   
Nodoka didn't fight her laugh. She was enjoying herself immensely. It   
had been ages since she'd had as good a time as she'd enjoyed that   
evening. She believed her son, she knew that he was an honest lad, who   
would do most anything to keep his word. But the situation was just so   
hilarious, and the explanations made it even more so.   
Ranma could only recall Soun Tendo fuming. He'd almost gone into   
that demon head thing of his.   
"Look, mom. If you don't believe me that's alright. I just don't   
know why you had to go and tell Mr. Tendo that about formalizing the   
engagements."   
Nodoka realized, in retrospect, that she had gone a bit far. But at   
the time she could hardly consider anybody taking her seriously. She put   
a hand out comfortingly. "Now son, its not like you have to marry any   
one of them. The arrangement we reached was only that you had to allow   
them to go on dates with you, once each, to decide which one would be   
the proper fit. If you decide that none of them suit you, then the whole   
arrangement will collapse."   
Ranma allowed himself to be mollified. Having been engaged to every   
female under the sun had happened to him before, in fact it seemed to be   
a recurring theme. Just as his mind was caught up in calculating exactly   
how many fiances he'd had in more than a dozen lives (of just the most   
prominent realities) he didn't realize, until he'd nearly run into her,   
that a girl was in his way.   
"Sorry, Amy. I almost didn't see you."   
He sidestepped, almost running into another girl. "Oops. Sorry Mina,   
my mind's just a blank today. I guess I really should watch where...   
I'm... go..."   
He'd raised his head to find himself surrounded by Sailor Scouts.   
His mother was gaping at them in amazement, while the Sailors were   
having a tough time not gaping at Ranma.   
Ranma stiffened, realizing what he'd just said and to whom. His eyes   
shrank to pinpoints. "Uh Oh."   
He grabbed his mother. "Sorry guys, guess I must have mistaken you   
for someone else. Bye!" He lifted his hand in the air. "Saotome Secret   
Technique. Now you see me, now you DON'T!!!"   
His voice trailed off as he and his mother vanished.   
The Sailor Scouts stood stunned for just an instant, then Mercury   
whipped out her computer. "I'm getting a very weak signal. But it's   
going to be almost impossible to track him."   
"We *gotta* find out who that guy is." Venus urged. "I mean, he   
knows our secret identities! What if he *told* someone?" 

Ranma collapsed on a park bench. Happosai's Inter-Dimensional Warp   
technique was useless for travel *between* realities, but it was awfully   
useful for getting out of sticky situations *in* one.   
He sagged and breathed out heavily. It wasn't fun though. It tired   
him out and it was nearly impossible to carry another person any   
distance. Thankfully his mother had fainted. So he didn't have any   
explaining to do, yet.   
A pair of shapely orange boots stepped into his vision.   
"Sure is a nice trick," Venus commented. "Too bad that you can't   
hold it very long."   
Ranma groaned. Then it began to rain.   
"Great. *Just* great." Spouted a thoroughly annoyed Ranma-chan. She   
glared at the Sailor Scouts. "So when are you going to start sucking my   
blood, huh?"   
The Sailors recoiled. "Eww!" Moon shrieked. "Who'd want to suck   
blood? Sounds disgusting!"   
Female Ranma gauged their reaction. "You mean you aren't   
super-powered vampires, held at bay only by the Legendary Tuxedo Mask?"   
"No! Where'd you get *that* idea?"   
"We are sailor suited warriors fighting to defend the Earth from the   
Negaverse." Mercury supplied helpfully.   
"Yeah, and just how can you know our identities without knowing   
that?" Jupiter added.   
Ranma sighed. She'd been jumping to conclusions again, forgetting   
that each reality was always a little different than the last. That mess   
at the Tendo place had been on so familiar a theme that she'd fallen   
into the trap of thinking everything was the same.   
She looked at her mother, lying still in the rain. "Okay, I'll   
explain. But can we get my mother warm first?" 

They judged the best thing was to return Mrs. Saotome to her home,   
where she would be more than adequately taken care of. But there were   
problems. Ranma/Ranko explained about her curse, appending that she   
didn't believe that her mother would recognize her as a girl, which made   
her hesitant to be seen that way by the staff.   
The Scouts, for their part, didn't want to be seen with a non-Scout   
(drawing attention to that person, who could unfortunately identify   
them) but didn't want to let Ranko out of their sight   
They stood there debating who should be left to guard Ranko, and how   
many it would take to transport Nodoka, who, for all her slender   
appearance, was also a great deal of muscle. When Ranko solved the   
problem by going into a nearby clothing shop and emerging in a white   
swimsuit, short purple skirt, and gloves. A makeshift Sailor costume.   
She posed. "Well, you *did* say you don't hang out with non-Scouts." 

Venus giggled.   
Sailor Moon laughed and zipped over to hug the startled girl. "Oh!   
It's so cute! Hey, gang, maybe she can fight the Negaverse for us."   
Everybody had a good laugh.   
"Well, I suppose it will do for tonight." Mercury conceded.   
Mars helped Jupiter lift Nodoka onto Ranko's back. "Yes," her eyes   
sparkled, brewing mischief. "Hey, what are we going to call our new   
Scout?"   
"Sailor Ranma?" Mercury giggled.   
"Sailor Swimsuit?"   
"How about Department Store Scout?" Moon laughed.   
"She could wear an eyepatch and be Sailor Cyclops."   
Ranko was getting a little tired of the teasing, it had been a   
*long* day.   
"Aw, hey gang lighten up. After all, Ranma can lift his mother all   
alone and none of us can. Besides, he does pretty good for not having   
any Sailor powers."   
The redhead smiled her gratitude to Mars. "Thanks Mars. I go by   
Ranko when I'm a girl. Anyway, Tuxedo Mask was a prince of Earth,   
right?" Ranko shrugged to get her mother settled more firmly on her   
back. "So what planet *isn't* taken?"   
"Tuxedo Mask was a prince?" Sailor Moon asked in wonder. "Oh well, I   
guess he can have a sister. For tonight you are Sailor Earth! Now lets   
get moving." 

Jadeite chuckled as he laid his latest trap. He'd really been quite   
ingenious about stealing energy, too bad the Sailor Scouts had stopped   
him every time. But now he had a foolproof plan to stop them. 

The delivery had gone well enough. Then the Sailor Scouts got called   
away to battle some monster or other. Even Mercury was complaining that   
it was alot of work for them in one day.   
Promising to wait for them, Ranko slipped her own clothes on above   
her fake Sailor suit. Then, recalling how hungry she'd become (they'd   
somehow missed dinner at the Tendos) she checked her wallet and slipped   
into a nearby restaurant. Where, it occurred to her, she could even get   
hot water.   
She approached the counter and stopped dead cold. "U..Uc...Ucchan!"   
The proprietress narrowed her eyes. "Do I know you?"   
Ranko trembled. "..." Then collapsed in tears.   
"Hey, what's wrong there?" Ukyo came around the counter in concern.   
"I'm new to the restaurant business but I'm pretty sure tears aren't on   
the menu." She put her arm around the crying girl and patted her on the   
back.   
Ranko seized her arm. "Please, tell me." She sobbed. "Do you know a   
boy named Ranma Saotome?"   
Ukyo thought back. "Hey! Yeah, I do. He's the one I was engaged to   
when I was really small. My father and his father decided. Say, how did   
you know about that?"   
Ranko just shook with tears, but their character had changed. After   
a moment she'd recalled enough of herself to whisper. "Thank God."   
"Hey, you're pretty shook up there. How about an okanomiyaki, on the   
house?" The strange girl nodded, and Ukyo went back around the counter.   
"Say," she ventured, pouring out the batter. "I really would give a alot   
to know how you knew about Ranma. It's not something I go telling my   
friends, and I know my dad wouldn't talk about it. So, have you seen   
Ranma or his father around?"   
Ukyo asked it casually, but Ranko could tell the question was   
important to her. Warm feelings were beginning in her chest and Ranko   
was suddenly so *glad* she'd found this place!   
Beginning to compose herself, Ranko struggled to answer. "Ranma   
lives not far from here." Her voice broke off, and she struggled to   
regain it. "I've heard that his father is dead."   
Ukyo froze in the middle of pouring sauce, making a puddle on an   
otherwise perfect okanomiyaki. She put the sauce down, her eyes   
downcast. "So that's it then. I've hoped for years he'd come and sweep   
me off my feet, but with his father dead I doubt he even remembers me."   
Ranko shook her head, her cheeks still wet. "No, Ukyo. He thinks   
about you every night. I've even caught him crying, just sometimes." She   
amended. "But I'm sure he was thinking of you."   
Ukyo's eyes sparkled. She leaned forward eagerly. "Really?" She   
leaned back, getting dreamy. "Oh, Ranchan!"   
Ranko thought back to the last reality where she'd seen Ukyo. It   
seemed a thousand lives ago. She, as Ranma, had still been so new to   
this... He'd gone into a fit and started screaming on and on about how   
he loved Akane. Ukyo had listened, and it wasn't until later that he'd   
learned that he and Ukyo had been married at the time.   
It had been that experience that had caused him to stop and think,   
to quit crying about what he'd lost, and for the first time consider   
what he was going to do with what he had, and what he might hope to   
have. To try and make more of himself than a screaming lunatic who cared   
only about things that weren't his anymore.   
And at the core of his honorable heart he'd never let him forgive   
himself for what he'd done to his Ucchan. In a reality that ended,   
carelessly enough, when he'd wished he'd never hurt her. A wish   
fulfilled, perversely, by him spending the next hundred or so lives   
never having met her.   
Both girls recovered their thoughts at about the same time. "Hey, I   
can't serve you up a spoiled okanomiyaki!" Ukyo tossed it in a bin with   
a deft flick of her spatula. She poured another, and one for herself,   
then beamed. "Hey, I know! It's pretty late and all, why don't I close   
up shop and you can tell me all about Ranma? I'll make you a trade. You   
tell me about him and I'll do what I can to help you with *your*   
troubles. How does that sound?"   
Ranko mumbled that it sounded good, so Ukyo happily closed shop,   
then deftly served up the pair of okanomiyaki, joining Ranko at one of   
the tables to eat.   
"So, why don't we start with you?" Ukyo asked. "What brings you out   
this late on a rainy evening?"   
Ranko almost answered `Sailor business,' but had enough good sense   
to keep her trap shut. Instead she performed a quick meditation exercise   
to settle her wits, and answered. "I'd rather talk about you. I mean, I   
hate to sound weird, but my problems are really wigged out. I doubt   
you'd even believe me if I told you."   
Ukyo shrugged, bouncing her shoulders and her hair. "Aw, c'mon.   
Gimme a try, will yah?" She swallowed a bite. "Go ahead, I promise I'll   
believe you. So spill it."   
Ranko struggled, then took the plunge. "Okay, here's just one out of   
many. Did you get any martial arts training when you were growing up?"   
Ukyo nodded. "Sure, my dad was really strict. He said I had to learn   
martial arts or I'd never get a husband." She played with her food a   
bit. "He can be a real creep sometimes, but he *is* my father."   
Ranko felt certain she'd had it worse. "Well, my dad was too. Only   
he wasn't content to just teach me martial arts. He took me to all sorts   
of exotic training grounds trying to make sure that I learned it all."   
"Sounds fun," said Ukyo.   
Ranko shook her head. "Maybe at first, but he wouldn't ever quit.   
Well, we finally ended up at this cursed training grounds in China. It   
turns out that whoever touches the water in any of the pools there gets   
cursed to turn into whatever drowned in that pool last."   
"Wow. So did you get cursed?"   
Ranko nodded.   
"And you change?"   
Ranko nodded.   
Ukyo took her final bite of okanomiyaki. "So what do you turn into?"   
Ranko swallowed. She looked at Ukyo, eyes brimming. "A girl."   
Ukyo blinked, her chopsticks frozen. "*Wait*, I don't get it. You're   
already a girl. What's the curse supposed to be?"   
Ranko just shook her head, got up and poured herself a glass from   
the hot water tap. "Just remember, Ranma *does* love you." She told   
Ukyo, then poured the glass of water over herself.   
"And I'm Ranma." He finished in a much deeper voice.   
Ucchan blinked for a moment, holding herself stock still. Then she   
slammed into his chest in a hug that would have done a linebacker proud.   
"Ranchan! Is it really you?"   
Ranma grunted under the impact. "Yeah. Or what's left of me." He   
smiled down at her. "Uh, could you excuse me for a moment? Some weird   
stuff happened on the way here and well... I'm kinda wearing a leotard   
under this and it pinches something awful."   
Ukyo met his eyes, fought down a smirk, then giggled. Then the pair   
of them were laughing on the floor. Ranma even pulled open his shirt to   
show her the fake Sailor costume he wore, then the pair of them were so   
lost to mirth that they actually laughed hard enough to knock a table   
down on themselves. Said table still had their glasses on it, and, with   
the accuracy of cold water seeking out the nearest Jusenkyo curse, Ranko   
returned.   
Seeing him, or actually her, brought on more gales of laughter to   
both of them. Soon the young girls were tired and wheezing, holding onto   
the legs of furniture for support.   
Ukyo wiped a tear from her eye. "Poor, Ranchan. You really *have*   
had it rough."   
Ranko shrugged. Somehow it didn't seem so bad anymore. Then she   
caught a flash of light outside the window.   
Ukyo saw it too. "It's just lightning." She assured Ranko.   
Ranko stood up, getting serious. "It was lightning." She admitted.   
"But lightning doesn't usually travel from side to side."   
Ukyo joined her. "What could it be, then?"   
Ranko joined eyes with her. "I think it's the Sailor Scouts. You   
gotta forgive me, Ucchan. But I gotta go." She opened the door and ran   
out, shrugging out of her shirt and pants. "See you tomorrow!" She   
called, before leaping to the top of a building.   
Ukyo watched Ranko disappear as her father came down from his room,   
stealing up behind her.   
"What was that about, Ukyo?" Genma inquired of his daughter. 

Jupiter landed after casting her thunder strike. The creature didn't   
seem to mind it at all. It hadn't even been hit.   
The Scouts had been battling this monster for far longer than they'd   
been used to. Mercury had used her bubbles to fog the area from time to   
time, allowing the Scouts to take a breather, but it hadn't been easy.   
So far they had chased it or been chased over half of the district.   
"We've got to get it controlled, so Sailor Moon can use her tiara   
attack on it!" Venus called, before being called to dodge another   
super-fast lunge by the creature.   
Mars used her own attack to lay down a curtain of fire, and the   
Sailor Scouts collapsed down behind it, exhausted. "I'd settle for just   
slowing it down." Jupiter groaned, wincing at bruises her Sailor suit   
had barely protected her from.   
Luna and Artemis looked on, concern marking the two felines. 

Ranko arrived at the scene of battle, and was looking on as a small,   
fast beast evaded most of the Sailor Scout's assaults. It was repeatedly   
going after the Sailors themselves, who were finding themselves hard put   
to dodge.   
Tuxedo Mask appeared beside her. "What's going on? Why are they   
taking so long? I felt sure I would never get here in time..." He   
watched as the creature went for another body attack on a Sailor Scout.   
"What *is* that thing?"   
Ranko scowled, crossing her arms. "Happosai."   
Tuxedo looked at her. "A what?"   
"Not a what, a who." Ranko corrected, getting ready to leap into the   
fray. "He's a couple of hundred years old and as evil as they come.   
Look, his main asset is his speed. Even I can't hit him when he's moving   
that fast. But if I slow him down do you think you can stop him?"   
Tuxedo twirled a rose around his finger. "Not a problem."   
Ranko accepted his statement with her eyes, then leapt into the   
battle. "Hey, you old freak!" She announced from the top of a steeple,   
silhouetted against the sky. "Nobody attacks the Sailor Scouts. They   
stand for Love and Justice, which cuts out perverts like you! Fierce   
Tiger Ball, Attack!!!"   
Ranko cupped her hands and a ball of energy shot from them,   
impacting harmlessly where the hentai had been, exploding into a cloud   
of debris that the old freak used to power his leap toward her.   
"Pretty Lady!" Happosai called, aiming himself for a clomp onto her   
less public areas.   
Ranko had been expecting nothing less, and timed her attack   
accordingly. She kneed him in the eyeballs when he'd gotten close.   
Unfortunately, the attack hurt her leg almost as much as it did his   
head.   
Clutching her knee, Ranko used one arm to vault away. "Sheesh,   
what's got into this guy? It's like he's built outta stone or   
something!"   
"He's drawing power from the Negaverse!" Mercury called out. "Be   
careful!"   
Ranko took it under advisement, diving and rolling to the side   
instead of countering Happosai's latest leap. "Everyone get ready!" She   
cried, then stood facing Happosai, slightly favoring one leg.   
"What's the matter, old freak? Are you coming to get it or aren't   
ya?"   
Happosai charged her breasts like a missile. Ranko split into two   
images just as he reached her, allowing him to pass harmlessly in   
between. Both then pivoted to face him as he landed behind her. Ranko's   
images split again, and again, until duplicates of her stood in a circle   
around the ancient pervert. They then began to float, rotating around   
him in a spinning ring.   
"Sailor Earth, what are you doing?" Venus yelled.   
"Its the Amazon Splitting Cat Hairs technique!" Ranko called from   
within the illusion. "And hurry up! I've only got a couple of seconds   
before this guy breaks out of it!"   
Happosai was already concentrating his energy. "Hah! This simple   
technique is no match for me! The illusion that creates can only..."   
A rose struck him stem first through the foot, nailing the old   
pervert down and breaking his train of thought. Tuxedo Mask stood   
highlighted on a building, his cape swirling. "Beauty must be enjoyed   
with tenderness, else we would destroy that which we covet. Sailor   
Scouts! Take care of this perversion of nature!"   
"Right!" They called in unison.   
"Mercury Bubbles, Blast!"   
"Jupiter Thunder, Crash!"   
"Venus Crescent Beam, Smash!"   
"Mars Fire, Ignite!"   
Happosai was simultaneously blasted, scorched, shot through and   
frosted. He was just finishing a fit of spasms and was getting on to   
being really mad when Sailor Moon's Tiara attack (lost in the explosions   
and shouting) came and struck him in the chest, converting him into a   
fine spray of dust.   
"Until next time, ladies!" Tuxedo called out, turning and vanishing   
over the rise.   
Ranko dropped to one knee, clutching her leg.   
"That was *wonderful* Sailor Earth!" Luna came charging up. "Sailor   
Earth?" Her head tilted in concern. "Are you alright?"   
Ranko shook her head. She looked up as the other Scouts gathered. "I   
think it's broken." Tears were gathering in her eyes as she spoke.   
Sailor Mercury went to look, and Artemis observed. "Fighting on a   
broken leg? That was very courageous of you. But your Sailor costume   
should have prevented such an injury."   
"It's not a real Sailor costume." Jupiter told him.   
"Yeah, it's just a swimsuit." Sailor Moon supplied. "She got it so   
she wouldn't look weird hanging out with us."   
"A swimsuit!" Luna gasped. "You mean she did all that under her own   
power?"   
"Well, Yeah.. I guess so." Sailor Moon hedged.   
"Well, we have *got* to get her a pen immediately. We can't have any   
of you Scouts fighting at less than your full potential!"   
"I'll call Central." Artemis volunteered, bounding off.   
The other Scouts all looked at each other, a little embarrassed and   
unsure of what to do. Artemis returned with the pen clutched in his   
teeth, which he dropped close to Sailor Earth's hand.   
"Now take this," Luna advised her kindly. "And call out `Earth Power   
Make-Up.' The transformation should heal the damage to your leg."   
"Uh, Artemis." Sailor Moon asked while this conversation was going   
on. "What did you tell Central?"   
"Hmm? Oh. I just told them that we'd found Sailor Earth, and she   
needed her pen, just like the rest of you." He frowned. "There was a bit   
of trouble finding it, so they ended up using some of their reserve   
power to make her a new one. But she *does* need it if she's going to be   
fighting alongside you guys. We can't have her getting injured all the   
time."   
"Oh." Sailor Moon bigsweated, a huge drop forming on the back of her   
head.   
Ranko reached for the pen, ruefully thinking. `Mother is sure going   
to love *this* one when she finds out about it.' Raising the pen up over   
her head she called out the power phrase.   
Instantly her body burned with blue fire, bringing her upright in   
the air, an empty silhouette of energy, spinning gracefully in space.   
Lightning coursed up her chest, coating her torso with a white Sailor   
costume. Then molten metal reached out from around to caress her arms   
and legs, forming gloves and boots on her empty limbs.   
With a flash of light she was no longer empty, filling out her   
costume with flesh. Jewelry appeared with bright flashes of chi energy,   
and she came to rest on the pavement, striking a pose.   
"Wow! I haven't had a trip like that since..." Earth trailed off.   
"Since?" Mars queried.   
"Since I can't remember." Earth finished, choosing not to mention   
that it was since the last time she'd been married. It had been to Rae,   
oddly enough, vampire and all.   
"Is your leg alright?" Luna asked, concern still in her voice.   
"Yeah, feels great. I can't even tell it'd been broken."   
"That is marvelous, Sailor Earth." Luna sounded relieved. She   
yawned. "Well, we'd best be off to get our beauty sleep. It's been a   
long day for all of us. We'll have a Sailor Scout meeting tomorrow. Ten   
AM, the usual place."   
The Scouts nodded in unison.   
"Oh, Sailor Earth. Do you know where to find it?"   
Earth gave her the thumbs up and winked. "Cherry Hill Temple, in the   
shrine? Not a problem."   
Luna leapt up into Sailor Moon's arms. "Well, then. See you all   
there."   
The Scouts dispersed. 

Ranma awoke to hot, buttered croissants and the morning news, both   
on a tray by his bed. The rolls he found interesting, and would have   
ignored the paper save for the fact that the headline read, taking up   
the full page no less, "New Sailor Scout Appears!"   
He read the article. They'd devoted half a page to a picture of   
Ranko in her makeshift costume. The story described the fight in   
sufficient detail that Ranma soon began to wonder where they'd hid the   
reporter. The writer of the story had assumed the lights around Earth at   
the end had just been to heal the new Sailor's wounds, so there wasn't   
much about it save to mention that it had happened.   
The reporter had caught almost none of the dialog, and there was   
rampant speculation about who the new Sailor Scout could be.   
He took a leisurely shower, pondering what he'd read, and was   
halfway down to breakfast before he looked at the time- after nine. He   
was not late yet, but he was going to be, unless...   
He skimmed into the kitchen on one foot. "Mom, I *really* have to be   
somewhere this morning... mom?" He looked out, seeing her at work in the   
garden. "*Mom!* Can I borrow the combat helicopter?"   
Nodoka yelled back. "That's fine dear. Just remember to take your   
sword, ok?"   
"Sure, mom!"   
Pilot and copter were rounded up in short order, and in no time at   
all they were racing over Tokyo. Ranma thinking furiously about what   
he'd do when he got there.   
"Missile tracking radar is pinging us from the Kuno estate, Sir."   
The pilot interrupted his musing. "Orders?" The man asked, expecting the   
standard `Pilot's Discretion' they'd always given him before.   
Ranma snapped back to the present. "Surface evasion pattern. Go   
now!"   
The helicopter dove for the deck. Their excellent pilot dropped them   
down to street level, dodging trees and electrical wires to get there,   
quickly bringing them into a long stretch of clear road where they could   
race at high speed.   
"Sir, we've got three hostiles lifting off in pursuit!" The gunner   
called out.   
If Ranma remembered it right there was a park not far from Rae's   
place, a park with a big lake. He gave the order to head for it.   
Shops flew past beneath them, pedestrians and drivers stunned to see   
this piece of military equipment screaming by just overhead. Ranma was   
preparing to unbuckle and climb out on the wing. "When we reach the   
park, you will drop to half speed over the lake and rise to about a   
hundred feet. That's where I get off. You will then communicate with   
home that I have been dropped off, don't sweat it if Kuno's birds hear   
you, they're supposed to. Then it's Pilot's Discretion to the nearest   
safe haven. Got that?"   
"Acknowledged. And good luck, Sir!"   
"You too!" Ranma unbuckled and soon was standing on the skid of the   
copter, holding onto the side for support as wind threatened to tear him   
away. If he understood the rules of this feud right, only members of the   
family were threatened with anything close to full force. If the Kuno   
helicopters understood that Ranma was no longer in this bird they   
wouldn't chase it nearly as hard. Maybe even breaking off a chopper or   
two to search for him.   
Which meant, if he judged his pilot right, that they would get away   
no problem. He had worries about himself.   
The combat helicopter raced along, barely skimming traffic and   
electrical wires. Rae just happened to be out sweeping the temple steps   
when the helicopter rushed past, Ranma clinging fiercely to its side.   
Leaves and papers blew wildly in its wake.   
Rae stood there in astonishment as the helicopter bounced to a   
higher altitude over the park that (at least in this time) shared a   
border with her temple. Then she gasped as Ranma dove off the side of   
the moving machine.   
Dropping her broom she raced down to the lake, the wind still   
blowing her skirt around her legs. She arrived a few moments later to   
see a soaking Ranko dragging herself out of the water.   
"What happened?" Rae called, helping to pull Ranko out.   
"No time," the redhead gasped. "Gotta get under cover."   
"Here, let me help you to the temple." Rae supported the smaller   
girl. "You are soaking wet. What were you doing up there?"   
Ranko squelched, getting her feet under her at last and beginning to   
hurry up the path. Rae ran alongside her. Then Ranko flashed a disarming   
grin. "I was worried about being late."   
Three other helicopters flew past, two following after the Saotome   
chopper, one breaking off to search the park.   
Both girls looked at it in concern. "We'd better get you inside and   
changed." Rae whispered.   
"No argument there." Ranko replied. They both ran back to the   
temple. 

Kuno sat in a meditative pose, trying to ignore the bandages on his   
scorched and wounded body.   
Sasuke materialized before him, kneeling. "Master, the strike group   
reports that they can find no trace of the treacherous Saotome. Our   
spies report that he was not in the copter when it landed."   
Kuno looked up from his trance. "Yet he began in the copter, you   
say. Hmm, then it is obvious they evaded us by switching helicopters!"   
He shouted. "Dispatch a roaving team to do what can be done following   
their flight path. I, myself, will take a squad of men and search this   
park that seemed to have been their destination."   
"But Master!" Sasuke interjected. "Your injuries!"   
"Bother me not with trifles!" Kuno shouted, springing to his feet. A   
shiver passed up his spine and he fell back down to his knees. "Perhaps,   
I should rest a bit first. Yes..." He passed out face down on the floor. 

Rae handed Ranko one of her own spare outfits, a white gi top and   
red skirt. "So what was all that about?" She asked.   
Ranko started to change. Rae stopped her. "Uh, maybe you'd better   
wash first. You smell like that pond."   
Ranko laughed at herself. "Sorry, I've been splashed so often that I   
begin to forget the water's not always clean. Where's your bathroom?"   
Rae showed her, Ranko went in, pulling off her top. "You can come   
in. I'm not shy."   
"You really don't mind?" Rae asked, somehow anxious to talk.   
"Nah, just don't go splashing me with hot water. Kay?"   
Rae smiled. "Sure." She sat on the tub while Ranko began scrubbing.   
"What's it like? Being a boy and a girl, I mean?"   
Ranko paused, soap in her hair, considering. "Well, most people are   
nicer to girls. I've had practically everyone in the world try to kill   
me, or challenge me, as a guy. But lots of those same people bring me   
flowers and things when I'm a girl."   
The redhead scowled. "Being honest, it stinks." She continued. "I'd   
much rather be a guy full time. That way I don't have to constantly be   
worrying everywhere I go. Changing in front of people is *really*   
embarrassing. And its awkward and weird not having your clothes change   
with you. So you find yourself on the beach in a boys swim trunks, or on   
a date in a dress, and then somebody hits you with the right kind of   
water and Poof! Major social embarrassment." Her scowl softened. "There   
was one time when I was in a gymnastics contest, wearing a skimpy   
leotard in front of hundreds of people, and my opponent started to fling   
hot water at me." She sighed. "One of my friends got me out of it. I   
nearly died of fright though."   
Rae's eyes twinkled, her left hand playing with the hot water tap.   
"Really?"   
Ranko didn't notice. She moved on to scrubbing her chest and arms.   
"Yeah, like today. I leave the house as a guy and I don't even get here   
before I change. It happens all the time."   
"You don't say." Rae deadpanned. Hot water spurted out, covering   
Ranko.   
Ranma held the washcloth very low, turning red. "Yup, that's the   
sort of thing that happens."   
Rae laughed. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself. Here," she   
splashed Ranma with cold water. "I'll get your back, that way we'll get   
you out of here on time for the Sailor Scout meeting."   
Ranko pecked her on the cheek. "Just don't let anyone else know,   
okay? I get treated like a freak most of the time."   
Rae blushed, and bent to her work. "Don't worry. I won't tell   
anyone." Then she laughed. "We Sailor Scouts are good at keeping   
secrets." 

Ranko and Rae, dressed in identical outfits and wielding identical   
brooms, were sweeping together as Lita and Amy arrived. Ranko had even   
allowed Rae to do her hair for her, and she had styled it the same way   
she wore her own. The two of them looked like book ends as they greeted   
the arrivals.   
"Well hello!" Amy called. "Glad to see you got here on time." She   
praised Ranko, pleased with their new Scout being punctual.   
Ranko blushed, and Rae laughed. "Yes." Her eyes twinkled. "You   
should have seen her arrive too!"   
Seeing her reaction, the ever-protectful Lita asked. "Was something   
wrong?"   
Amy watched curiously as Rae relayed the story of Ranma's arrival,   
speeding down the street on the side of a helicopter.   
"You mean someone's trying to kill you?" Amy could hardly believe   
it.   
Ranko nodded, but didn't go into any details.   
"Who was it?" Lita asked.   
Ranko shrugged. "It's this guy named Kuno. His family's got this   
blood feud going on with mine. They killed my father and I think we got   
his. My mother doesn't even dare leave the estate anymore without her   
guards. The whole thing's pretty ugly."   
"How dreadful!" Amy gasped.   
"We've got to put a stop to it." Lita proclaimed. "Lots of people   
could get hurt in that kind of fight."   
Ranko sighed. "I *could* have ended it yesterday. Kuno and I got in   
a fight, and I could have killed him. After that it probably would have   
been over. But I didn't feel right about doing it that way."   
Amy put her hand reassuringly on her shoulder. "You did the right   
thing. I'm certain of it."   
Serena and Mina came running up, shouting and waving to the group.   
"Guys, ya *gotta* look at this!" Serena sang. "That new restaurant is   
having a sale today, anyone who goes in a group of five gets their   
dessert for free!"   
Serena skidded to a halt and glared at Ranko. "Oh. I suppose *you'd*   
want to go to."   
Ranko smiled. There was an easy way out of this. "I'll tell you   
what." She offered. "That restaurant's going to be jammed today. You're   
hardly likely to get a seat. So why don't we go somewhere else and it   
will be my treat?"   
Serena did a double-take. "You'd *do* that?"   
Ranko beamed, just like her mother. "Sure, why not? I'd even spring   
for a cab there. Interested?"   
"What, do you expect Serena to turn down food?" Mina quipped. "Of   
course she accepts. We'll all go." 

Later, and pleasantly full, the Scouts met in the shrine of Rae's   
temple. Luna and Artemis had been set away on errands, allowing the   
girls to be free in discussing Ranko's unique problem.   
"Wow! That was a *major* nice meal!" Serena gloated, massaging her   
belly.   
"It really was very nice of you to take us all out to eat." Amy   
congratulated. "I'm sure we'll all get to be good friends."   
The other Scouts voiced the same.   
"The first thing I'd like to know, Ranko." Mina turned to the newest   
Scout. "It's how do you know so much? I mean, we've only met you for the   
first time and you already know all about us."   
Ranko glanced around the group, all eyes were on her. She sighed.   
"Well, I promised my mother this talk. I might as well get some practice   
with you."   
She took out of her clothes a jeweled bracelet, obviously expensive   
and probably old, placing it on the floor before her. The other Scouts   
crowded in to look.   
"I got this a long time ago. Please don't ask me how, it's a story   
I'm not sure I can explain. Not long after I got it I found myself in   
China, there I got the matriarch of an Amazon tribe to tell me about it,   
even give me some advice."   
"It's called a Destiny Ring, and it grants its user a nearly   
unlimited number of wishes. There's a catch though, you can't ever undo   
a wish once you've made it."   
Serena stared. "So, like, who cares? If I wished for a huge fortune   
or a major cute guy there's no *way* I'd want to give it back."   
Ranko tolerantly replied. "Not even if you'd gotten the fortune in   
insurance money from your mother dying? Or the major cute guy was also a   
nutcase, or cheated on you? You have no say in *how* the wish is   
fulfilled, Serena, it just gets done. And history is rewritten around   
you when it happens. Shall I tell you what I made as my first wish?"   
She scanned the group. "It was a *very* bad day. I'd gotten in more   
trouble than I think even you Scouts had ever done. But I was upset, and   
I was angry, and I didn't even know what this thing did. So when I   
wished that `none of this had ever happened to me' I had no idea that it   
would come true."   
"What happened?" Mina whispered.   
Ranko breathed softly. "I lost everything. The girl I was engaged   
to, my home, none of my friends even remembered me. None of it,   
literally, had ever happened. I had a whole new life, but it wasn't *my*   
life. There were people who knew me, but I didn't know them. I had a   
job, but I didn't even know what I was doing at first. I had to start   
all over from nothing."   
Ranko exhaled some tension. "Thankfully, after a little while, I   
started to gain the memories associated with that life. So it wasn't all   
bad. But you remember how I told you that the ring grants a *nearly*   
unlimited number of wishes?"   
They nodded.   
Ranko leaned forward and lifted the ring up, showing off its dead   
stones. "I've used them all, drained it dry, trying to get back to that   
life I lost on my very first wish."   
Lita whistled.   
Ranko put the ring back in her pocket. "There is a flip side," she   
said, more brightly. "I've got the memories associated with a couple of   
hundred lives. I've *been* everywhere and *done* practically everything.   
I started as a skilled martial artist and have kept studying, and in a   
hundred lives I've learned more tricks than a circus panda."   
She grinned at the private joke. Selling Genma to the circus that   
once had burned off alot of accumulated frustration.   
"Plus the experience has taught me alot about myself." She laughed.   
"And about life, love, how to be happy." Ranko wiped a tear from her   
eye. "It was not something I'd ever been good at before, being happy."   
She shook herself back out of memory.   
"So that's how I know you. I've met you all four or five times now,   
each time it's been a little different. Twice I just ran into you by   
accident, like now. Once I served Queen Beryl, and once..." She got a   
little embarrassed. "Well once I was a guy full time and I was married   
to one of you."   
There was shock all around. "Married?" Mina gaped, then asked.   
"Which of us were you married to?"   
Ranko blushed. "I'd... I'd rather not say."   
Rae flushed. "It was me, wasn't it?"   
Ranko looked at her, stunned beyond words.   
Rae studied her hands. "Hey, I read fortunes all the time. Some of   
it just sinks in y'know? There was the way you knew your way around my   
house. You asked where the bathroom was, but you knew where the towels   
were and reached for my soap without even looking. I don't tell people   
where I keep my bath things, not even my friends know that. It's just   
not something I talk about. Then we were out sweeping and you got all   
the trouble spots. I'd lived in this place for years before I knew where   
all the leaves accumulated."   
Ranko and Rae met gazes, and couldn't tear their eyes away.   
Serena blushed. "Man, and I thought *my* life was weird!" 

Ranma got home, and sought out his mother. "Hey, mom, can we talk?"   
Nodoka looked up. "Sure dear, just let me get these gardenias   
planted."   
Ranma got down and joined her, working the soil expertly. "Mom, you   
know about the engagement thing last night?"   
Nodoka sat back on her heels, wiping the sweat away from her face.   
"Surely your not upset about that, dear. As I told you, all you have to   
do is go on a date with each of them. Then it will all be over, unless   
you don't want it to be."   
"No, no, no, no. Could you get back down here? I'd rather whisper."   
Puzzled, Ranma's mother bent back to her task, listening.   
"It's like, well, what if I *did* love two of them?" He asked, in   
utmost secrecy.   
Nodoka reared back, laughing merrily and loudly, filling the yard   
with her mirth. "Oh, my son." She said, leaning back and enjoying   
herself. "If that were your only problem in the world..." She continued   
bubbling, hiccupping with laughter.   
"But mom!" He practically screamed.   
Nodoka resumed a more motherly bearing. Leaning into the flowers and   
kindly instructing her son. "In that case, Ranma, you would simply marry   
them both."   
His eyes bulged. "You can do that?"   
She nodded. "You can. Our roots go back to feudal days when   
marriages were more often political than anything. Sometimes back in   
ancient Japan a lord had to take more than one wife. We don't talk about   
it much, but even though the world has changed around us, we do retain   
*some* rights."   
She wiped a tear of laughter from her eye. "That's why I wasn't   
concerned with the mess at your friend's home last night. Even if you'd   
had to marry the whole flock of them to retain your honor, there'd still   
be enough room for someone that you cared for." She gestured to the   
mansion around them. "We have a very large nest."   
Ranma hugged his mother fiercely. "I love you, mom!" He sobbed into   
her breast.   
She quietly patted him on the shoulder. "There now. Is there a   
reason for all these questions?" Nodoka could conclude that there were,   
but children often required gentle handling.   
He nodded, still hugging her fiercely.   
She stroked his shoulder, asking delicately. "Are there any   
arrangements that I should be making?"   
Ranma looked up at her, fiercely glowing with happiness and pride.   
"I'll have to go ask." He told her.   
She held onto his hand, preventing him from escaping. "I would like   
to meet my future daughters-in-law." She kindly requested.   
He nodded. "I'll bring them by." Suddenly his face fell. "But mom,   
what if they don't like the idea?"   
She waved him off. "My son, you are an excellent catch. What I have   
seen of you these past two days has been of a gentleman, a considerate   
man and a noble one. If you were poor and an invalid you would be worth   
a young lady's time. But you are not. You are handsome, athletic, a far   
cry from poor, and with enough love in your heart to shame ten other   
men. There's far too much of you for one maiden to handle. Go now, and   
if the girls you love won't return with you..." She smiled. "There will   
be others."   
Ranma's eyes brimmed with thankfulness for his mother. Then he ran   
off. 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Authors Notes: 

This my second try posting this. The first one apparently didn't go   
through, and besides the extra work made this a better version. 

Okay, so why the part at the end? Why did I give Ranma an out to   
marry multiple wives?   
It might have been because we *know* that it won't settle all his   
problems, it just increases the depth and the magnitude to which they   
can go. Can you imagine him married to Kodachi? Hmm, interesting   
thought...   
Or it might have been that I got tired of the infinite repeat of the   
endless fight over who gets him. I might have decided to just try it and   
see who could catch him, based only on what she herself decided to do.   
You really want to know the answer? I felt like it. It makes an old   
joke new again and gives me more fuel to be funny.   
I like being funny. 

To those of you who sent me flames. I *burst* my pimples at you (as   
if I had any). Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of   
Akane's cooking.   
But I did correct my errors. Nice, aren't I?   
I could be nice, I could be correct. I *could* even pay attention to   
timelines and what goes on in the originals. But will I?   
I mean, how delightful would this be if it were just another   
rewrite? Does *anybody* know what is going to happen next? 

Before you flame me, part Two here is just the calm before the   
storm. Things should get *very* frisky from here on out. And I don't   
mean sex. 


	3. 3

jared@netuser.com> 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Three   
When Things Get Interesting 

by Jared Ornstead 

Todays Disclaimer was stolen from a little old lady who only drove it to   
work on Sundays.   
(Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters created by Rumiko Takahashi.   
Sailor Moon and its associated characters created by Naoko Takeuchi. No 

infringement intended.) 

************************************************ 

Sailor Pluto met the young man just outside the wall as he left the   
Saotome estate. "Transform, Ranma. We've got to talk."   
He looked around. "A world of over two-thirds water, and I can never   
find any when I need it. C'mon, lets find a fountain and a less public   
place."   
It began to rain. Visibility dropped sharply.   
"You timed this pretty well." Ranko observed.   
"That's my job. Change."   
Ranko called out her transformation phrase, and was swiftly replaced   
by Sailor Earth. Pluto waved her staff and suddenly the two of them were   
in a non-place. No features, no landmarks, no floor, just the pair of   
them floating in place.   
Earth pivoted to face Pluto, totally comfortable in zero-gee. "So   
what's up?"   
A weary Pluto shook her head in resignation. "You *do* realize that   
you are the single largest disruption the time stream has ever had?" She   
asked, not at all happy. "Everything has been affected. The fabric of   
time has been worn very thin, Earth."   
Earth shrugged. "I'm sorry. I had no idea what I was doing."   
Pluto got mad. "And you think that's *good* enough? Are you saying   
your selfish search for happiness was *worth* all this? I'm not awake   
yet!" She screamed, bringing a hand to her chest. "None of the Outer   
Scouts are! But I've been called to come back through time to deal with   
your meddling. I *hate* meddling, and I hate to do it in response to   
meddling."   
Pluto simmered at a lower heat. "Enough. You aren't of the Silver   
Millennium, yet you are now a Sailor Scout." Her eyes blazed. "If you   
*weren't* a Scout I'd destroy you now."   
Earth was weighing the other Sailor's abilities. "Yes, Pluto. You   
could do it. But you'd have to freeze time, which would be breaking your   
own rules. And that wouldn't help this situation any."   
Pluto calmed slightly. "You're right, Earth. You are very powerful.   
Extremely so. Which is why I'm going to do what I'm planning to do."   
Earth cocked an eyebrow. Holding herself close enough to action to   
be able to counter any non-temporal move on the other Scout's part.   
"You can relax." She sighed. "I'm *not* going to hurt you. I need   
you to help fix the trouble you've caused." Pluto sagged as if under a   
heavy weight. "First you have to be of the Silver Millennium. Not easy   
to do, I assure you, but because the distortion is centered around you I   
can make use of some of it to alter your past. One more set of memories   
isn't likely to disturb you greatly."   
"Fair enough." Earth admitted.   
"Second, because of ripples from this distortion the Inner Scouts   
may be called to counter threats that they cannot handle. In fact your   
frequent rewriting of history has played merry havoc with all the   
schedules. Nothing is as it should be. The Outer Scouts will be *years*   
in discovering their identities!" Pluto glared. "There is one exception   
to that. Saturn is already stirring."   
"And how can I help with all this?"   
Pluto fumed. "Saturn *needs* guidance and direction, Earth, or she   
could destroy your world just fighting minions! Of all the Scouts,   
Saturn is by far the most dangerous to her friends. And so *you* will be   
her guardian and protector. Uranus and Neptune would have done this if   
time were different. Now they can't, so *you* will."   
"Okay, I promise that I will take care of her."   
Pluto eyed Earth dangerously. "Teach her, Earth. She's got to learn   
to control herself or there won't be a planet for you to live on. Her   
powers are that dangerous. She can heal, but she can also harm."   
"Pluto, I don't lie." Earth warned, beginning to grow weary herself.   
"I don't give my word easily, and you already have it."   
"That's a good thing, Earth." Pluto returned. "Because Saturn is   
waking up in response to a need for her powers."   
Pluto waved her staff and Sailor Earth was returned to Nerima,   
alone.   
She tapped her communicator. "Serena?" She asked, somewhat surprised   
at who'd answered. "We've got to get the Scouts together. Something big   
has come up." 

They sat together in a quiet spot in the park, Ranma with his arm   
around Rea's waist. She was leaning into him, for once not even noticing   
Serena babbling away.   
The last Scout joined them.   
"Sorry, gang." Amy apologized. "I'm not used to having to meet twice   
in one day. I was with my mother at the hospital and it took me some   
time to get away."   
"That's ok," Serena groaned. "It gave our two love birds time to   
make us sick with their snuggling."   
Rae was too happy to notice, or care.   
Ranma apologized. "Sorry about that, Amy. But two important things   
happened since our talk this morning, and it seemed wise that you should   
know about them. One is that I met Sailor Pluto."   
There were blank looks.   
"Now before you ask, I'd heard about Pluto before, but I'd never met   
her. She is the guardian of time, and she'd traveled back *through* time   
in order to give me a warning. That warning was... Well, let me put it   
another way. Have you noticed that all our planets are in close to the   
sun? Pluto called us the `Inner Scouts.' She explained that there were   
Outer Scouts, but that most of them wouldn't be joining us for awhile.   
Except one."   
Ranma looked down at the girl in his arms, then back up at the   
others. "She told me that Saturn will be joining us soon, and that she   
has some rather special problems. I got nominated to take care of her,   
but I'll need your help in locating her."   
"I don't see any problem with that." Lita leaned comfortably against   
a tree.   
"Yeah, we'll all pitch in." Mina stretched her torso, enjoying the   
sunlight.   
"I can set my computer to scan automatically for energy of the   
Silver Millennium. I'll just have to figure out a way to edit out   
Ranma's on-again-off-again trace of it so it doesn't give out any false   
readings."   
Ranma smiled into Rae's hair. "I don't think that will be a problem,   
Amy. I think my signal will have strengthened by now. Pluto said   
something about that."   
"Oh. Well then was there something else? You mentioned that two   
things had happened to you." Amy had opened her computer on the leafy   
ground before her, yet remained attentive nonetheless.   
"Yeah, what other *great* news do you have for us?" Serena   
questioned dubiously.   
"Oh. The other was that I got my mother's permission to marry Rae.   
Rae darling, will you marry me?"   
Rae lit up like a star.   
"Ranma Saotome! Prepare to die!" 

Kuno charged from between the trees, his eyes glowing red and a   
sword held above his head. Ranma shot to his feet and continued the   
motion into a convenient tree. His eyes caught the roughly-chiseled   
wooden sword Kuno was using, and shrank to mere pinpricks.   
"Uh, oh!"   
Kuno effortlessly chopped down the great tree in which Ranma was   
hiding. "Come and face the might of the Great Tatewaki Kuno, oh Fiend   
from Hell! And taste the bitter cup of utter humiliation!"   
Ranma sailed over to a stone monument, and left it barely before it   
shattered under a blow from Kuno's blade. He dove under a tree, over a   
rock ledge, and around a concrete utility pole, all destroyed moments   
behind him by the wrath of the super-powered kendoist.   
Kuno stood at the edge of a body of water, the treacherous Saotome   
having just leapt across to escape from danger. "Fool of an imbecile!"   
Tatewaki cried, raising his wooden sword and striking down at the water.   
The pond exploded in a line between them and when the mists had fallen a   
gap, a trench, was revealed in the water. Walls of quivering wetness   
hung suspended on either side of a dry path.   
Kuno started down the path. "Know fear, Saotome. As all your days   
have come to an end."   
"Jupiter Thunder, Crash!"   
"Venus Crescent Beam, Smash!"   
Swifter than lightning, Kuno had turned to block the deadly beams.   
His sword crackled with energy, beating back the twin assault.   
The walls of water surrounding him were not so lucky. They crashed   
inward.   
Tatewaki arose from the depths, as motionless as a chess piece on an   
elevator. He was completely dry, and cackled insanely in triumph. "Oh!   
Even the Sailor Scouts do tremble and quake before me!" He screamed,   
laughing at the glory of it all.   
"Actually, negacreep, we handle trash like you all the time." Sailor   
Moon retorted dryly.   
"His source of power is the sword!" Ranma called, before diving into   
the bushes near a stream.   
"That's confirmed." Mercury reported. "That sword more than triples   
his speed and is a source of great power. It makes him practically   
invulnerable."   
Sailor Earth appeared beside them. "That sword packs a whollap. To   
be honest I've never fought it before and won. A couple of times its   
made hamburger out of me, but accepted my surrender. And twice I've seen   
it destroy itself."   
"Under what conditions did it destroy itself?" Mercury queried,   
busily typing at her computer.   
Earth's brow furrowed in thought. "I can't remember, but both times   
it had something to do with a girl."   
Mars was powering up. "His source of power is the sword, huh? Mars   
Fire, Ignite!" Her spinning jet of fire laced out to snare the sword in   
Tatewaki's grasp. Kuno held it forth, expecting the sword to stop the   
blast, then held onto it screaming as the wood grew to unbearable heat.   
"Apparently the sword's defensive functions are only engaged when   
protecting its wielder." Mercury informed them. "I suggest that we   
direct our attacks toward it."   
"Got *that* right! Moon Tiara, Magic!"   
But Kuno had learned wisdom from his error, leaping over the blazing   
disk of energy to land on the shore beside them.   
"Scatter!" Earth called, then launched an attack on Kuno's gullet,   
which was effortlessly deflected, and returned in a dozen strikes more   
powerful. Earth went down.   
Tears streamed from an angry Mars as she shouted. "No one attacks us   
on the day I get engaged!" A cloud of sizzling energy surrounded her.   
"Mars Fire Bird, Strike!"   
Kuno was just about to strike Earth a lethal blow, and heard over his   
shoulder a cry of passion. Turning to face it, he caught sight of a   
vision of loveliness, surrounded by wreaths of fire. Said wreaths of   
fire coalesced into a shinning, fiery bird which struck down on him.   
Not about to waste a moment. "Venus Crescent Beam, Smash!"   
"Mercury Bubbles, Blast!"   
Earth got out of there just as the combined attacks hit.   
Kuno staggered out of the explosion, clothes afire and his hair   
turned into a charcoal bird's nest, shivering with cold even while   
burning.   
"Did you even hit him?" Sailor Moon asked as an aside to Venus.   
Venus nodded and pointed at Kuno's hands, shot through the wrists.   
"Eww." Moon bigsweated, holding her nose. "Guess he really didn't   
want to let go of the sword, did he?"   
Earth rebounded and rolled to her feet, but Mars wasn't finished   
yet. "For what you have done on my engagement day, you can never be   
forgiven!" She yelled at the top of her lungs toward the hapless Kuno,   
struggling to regain his defensive posture. "I call upon the power of   
Mars!" A huge fiery aura coalesced around her, blazing with heat and   
energy. "Mars *Twin* Fire Birds, Strike!!"   
Kuno parried one of the destructive, blazing forms, which   
incinerated his sword down to the hilt. The other caught him on his   
undefended backside, torching the noble Kuno's shorts in a towering   
inferno of flame, and sending him screaming into the lake in high   
pitched agony.   
The other Sailors bigsweated. "Uh, remind me not to get Mars mad at   
me, Kay?" Moon requested.   
The others nodded wordlessly. 

Ranma ran into Kasumi on his way home through the market.   
"Hello, Ranma-chan!" She called merrily.   
He gazed down in terror at his chest, then practically died of   
relief when he failed to see what he'd feared. "Man, just an expression.   
Whew!"   
She started over to him. Ranma really didn't have time to talk, but   
supposed that he could make an exception for Kasumi. Then something   
warned him and he pulled her body against his, carrying her along with   
him as he dodged under an energy blast aimed in their direction.   
He leapt away with her in his arms as the resulting explosion turned   
a shop counter into ash.   
"Oh, Ranma-chan. Are we going on our date now? Could we stop by the   
market for just a moment? I have to pick up some green vegetables for   
dinner tonight."   
Ranma's eyes were hurriedly sweeping for foes. "It's kinda hard to   
say, Kasumi. But there might not *be* a market in the next thirty   
seconds or so."   
He spotted his antagonist, creeping up on him from around a corner.   
His eyebrows furrowed, `too easy', and made the leap to his side as the   
rooftop he'd been standing on was destroyed from behind.   
Ranma scowled mightily, then raced along the rooftops. This was not   
good. He was being efficiently and effectively tracked and hunted, and   
after that first blast he'd had no choice but to carry Kasumi along with   
him. She was *shockingly* sexy under her house dress, but carrying her   
was also weighing him down and slowing his reactions.   
That `guess when the unseen attack comes' trick was unreliable and,   
at best, worked only a couple of times. He sought out an empty field to   
stand in. He had to identify what was hunting him, because some people   
would allow Kasumi to go free, while others?   
"Kasumi?" He asked. "Be an angel and use your position to look   
behind me? Please tell me if anyone approaches. Okay? We could be in   
danger."   
Kasumi nodded and began her vigil, looking over his shoulder behind   
them. Then, led by some mysterious female sense, decided that now would   
be a good time to resolve something.   
"Ranma? Do you..." She blushed and struggled. "What I am trying to   
say is that, I know you know Nabiki very well, and Akane is alot younger   
than I am. Do I... Am I too old to be attractive to you?" She blurted   
out suddenly.   
Ranma fought to hide his initial panic. He could practically hear   
her self esteem hanging on that question. Kasumi was an invulnerable   
person in many regards, and one whom he deeply respected. But her   
confidence wasn't all that high, and she could be very easily hurt   
whenever that wavered.   
To build up, or destroy, Kasumi right where it hurt. Hmm, tough   
question...   
He shifted to get her more comfortable in his arms. "Kasumi, I think   
that you are very attractive."   
She plucked self-consciously at the collar of her house dress. "You   
don't think that... that I'm too housewife-ish?"   
Double Jeopardy. Nobody asks the same question twice unless they are   
really in need of ego return. Then again, who did she have to tell her   
these things? She'd probably had these doubts about herself for a long   
time, and along comes someone who can answer them...   
He forced a chuckle. "The dress doesn't matter *that* much, Kasumi.   
A man would have to be blind not to see the woman inside it."   
Wrong comment. Compliments and witticisms aren't enough to reach the   
deep wounds. Ranma changed tack. "Look, I like Nabiki. She's weird but   
cute, and a good friend who can help you out of a jam. If you can afford   
it, that is." He amended, smirking just a little. "Akane can be neat   
sometimes, but she's a little temperamental and can get pretty wild. But   
while they have their own gifts, and I'm not belittling them, you have   
the ability to make everyone feel happy, cared for, and, well... loved.   
That's a rare gift Kasumi, and I think everybody appreciates it."   
She changed demeanor in his arms, no longer tense. A handyman knows   
when something is no longer leaking, but a craftsman doesn't put his   
hand to something if he knows he's going to stop when it's `good   
enough.' He wants it *done*. It becomes a matter of pride.   
He sighed. "Kasumi. There's alot in this world that I *don't* know.   
And I always seem to be getting into trouble, or saying the wrong   
things. But you make me feel very good. And I like to be around you. I   
think the world would be an awfully unhappy place without you in it." He   
confessed honestly.   
Ranma kinda forgot that she sort of considered herself engaged to   
him at the time. 

About a dozen knives came flying at them from the edge of the field.   
Ranma ignored them, they were just distraction for what was to come...   
He vaulted out of the way as an energy blast obliterated the center   
of the field, then took off running. He'd caught a glimpse of his   
pursuers. And he was scared.   
Ranma came down as Ukyo was just opening the doors to her   
restaurant. "HiUcchanIloveyoubutIcan'tstoptotalkrightnowseeyoulaterBye!"   
He then leapt away with a beautiful, long-haired woman in his arms.   
Ukyo blinked, then stood looking down his fading trail.   
"Wow, I wonder what all that was about. Poor Ran-chan really looked   
scared. Should I...?" But no, her question was already answered. Now was   
not the time. 

Ranma was of a wonderful philosophy that no one should die for   
having trusted him, and his enemies were vengeful. So he dropped Kasumi   
off at his mother's estate, thankful for once for all the perimeter   
guards and defenses. But as the protection there was not perfect, or   
even nearly so, he sped off, knowing that his enemies would be following   
him.   
Nodoka approached the eldest Tendo daughter. "Why Kasumi dear!" She   
embraced her warmly. "I'm so glad my son has chosen you. So you've   
accepted his proposal?"   
Kasumi bobbed her head eagerly, gleaming with a brilliant light.   
"And he spoke to you about there being more than just you, that   
there may be other wives?"   
Nothing could impact on Kasumi's happiness. Recalling what he'd said   
about liking Nabiki she nodded again, intent on the world of joy that   
she had found.   
Nodoka embraced the radiant girl. "I'm *so* glad. Please, I want you   
to know you can call me `Mother' from now on." She called to her butler.   
"Priory, this young lady is going to be living with us. See that a suite   
of rooms are prepared for her."   
The butler bowed. 

A wet but no longer pursued Ranko found her way to the Tendo dojo.   
Sneaking inside she pulled out a tiny mirror useful for seeing around   
corners. Seeing no one in the Tendo bath she slipped in to get some hot   
water.   
She would have preferred the kitchen, but when Kasumi was at market   
she left her home in ship shape, battened down and tidy. It would take   
twice as long to get hot water there. If only from cleaning up after   
herself.   
There is a miracle surrounding the Tendo bath, not unlike the   
mystery spot in California where gravity inexplicably works backwards.   
No sooner had Ranko gotten inside and was reaching for the tap when the   
outer door opened.   
Someone came inside.   
Akane came in to the bath area nude and slid the screen closed   
behind her. Oddly, one of the hot water taps was running. She turned it   
off, then sat down to get a good scrub.   
Ranma recalled ruefully that the *one* time their parents had ever   
gotten them together it had been by laying down a strict cleanliness   
rule. With all the baths they'd had to take after fights, squabbles,   
practice and mishaps, and the inevitable run ins those baths involved,   
they had finally grown comfortable with each other and, well...   
Akane washed off all the dirt from a hard practice session, then   
slipped into the tub for a long soak.   
Ranma was having a *very* hard time holding his breath. He'd learned   
pearl diver techniques that allowed one to stay under for ridiculously   
long. But he'd hoped that it wouldn't come to this.   
Using the last of his breath he shouted underwater. "Now you see me,   
now you DON'T!"   
Akane practically leapt out of her skin as the bath bubbled and   
frothed around her. It looked for an instant like a large shape had left   
the water.   
In fact...   
Akane grabbed the screen just as it was about to open of its own   
accord. "Oh, no you don't!" She grabbed a towel and began swinging it   
around her, hoping to detect an invisible shape by slapping it.   
Ranma was clinging to the ceiling. Exactly how long could he hold   
like this he didn't know, and just where did she get experience fighting   
invisible opponents?   
Akane quieted down. Latching the screen shut behind her she put a   
plug over the floor drain, then turned on a tap, staying on guard for   
the minutes it took to cover the floor in about a half-inch of water.   
Clever. He appraised. She would see any footsteps, probably hear   
them as well. Which cut down the places an invisible person could be. He   
could stand on the sink, or the tub, maybe cling to a few other places.   
Or he could be on the ceiling.   
Akane began whipping her towel over the places in question.   
He prayed she wouldn't think of the last place. She finished   
checking all the tile and fixtures, them gave him a good look, seeing   
right through him. Akane shrugged and replaced the towel on its bar.   
"Oh, well. I guess he got away."   
Ranma was struggling between relief and fatigue. Happosai would be   
fully charged right now, but Ranma didn't get his energy by spying on   
girl's baths.   
A drop of water from his soaked hair ran down his nose, falling from   
the tip and descending gracefully to the puddle on the floor.   
Akane had nearly put her foot back in the tub, the sound of her   
going in would easily have hidden the drop, but she hadn't. It was   
heard.   
Ranma had dropped to the wet floor before even before the towel was   
back in her hand. Going down on one knee he dropped his eyes to the   
floor, returning visible before her.   
"I apologize for my intrusion, I did not mean to spy. I await your   
will." About the worst she could do was hit him, and that wouldn't hurt. 

Akane dropped her towel. "Ranma? What are you doing here?" Realizing   
who he was she snatched back up her towel and wrapped its wet length   
around her.   
Ranma did not raise his eyes from the floor. He explained. "While   
passing your home I encountered a pressing need for hot water. Not   
finding any to be had in the kitchen I came here. You entered and, not   
knowing how to explain myself, I hid."   
Tying a knot in the towel to keep it on she asked. "Why didn't you   
just ask? If you'd come to the front door I would have given you some.   
Are... are you a pervert?"   
His head shook negatively, still not raising it. "No, Akane, I would   
prefer to be married before looking on a woman in this way."   
Her hands lost their hold on the knot she was tying, the towel fell   
to the floor with a wet splot.   
Perhaps that was not the best thing to say.   
He rose, averting his gaze. "I'll go now." 

In a hospital with far better facilities than the medical community   
usually knew existed, several doctors were gathered around a table. On   
boards all around them were displayed several photos of grievous   
injuries. All, interestingly enough, done to the same body.   
Kuno's family physician put his hands firmly on the table.   
"Gentlemen, we have the technology. We can rebuild him, better,   
stronger, faster..." 

Soaking wet and female (it was just one of those days) Ranko stopped   
by a telephone to call Rae and ask if she could stop by for hot water.   
She fumbled in a coin and dialed in the number as she remembered it.   
"Hello," a female voice answered. Ranko didn't recognize it. Did Rae   
have an aunt, a sister? The voice went on with only a brief pause. "You   
have reached the Goddess Helpline..."   
Ranko hung up. She didn't need some silly psychic. Apparently she'd   
not remembered the number correctly.   
She almost didn't notice the shop window behind her flare and start   
to glow. Almost, that is. Some things are hard for a near-paranoid   
martial artist to ignore. Ranko spun to face it in a ready stance.   
A gentle woman in outlandish garb pulled herself out of the window.   
She caught Ranko with a smile that would have melted ice. "Why hello.   
I'm the goddess Belldandy."   
Ranko dropped her stance, bowing low. "Hello, Belldandy. Is your   
father well?"   
Belldandy bobbed, still smiling. "Why yes, he is! Do you know him?"   
"Only by reputation. May I interest you in a cup of tea?"   
Belldandy beamed. "How sweet! But I'm not here for refreshment. I   
have come to grant you you're heart's desire."   
She floated up close to Ranko, conspiratorially. "But the rules say,   
I'm only allowed to grant you one wish."   
Another one? What was she going to do with *another* one?   
Belldandy laughed. "Oh my, you really have had a little trouble,   
haven't you? But there's no need to worry. I personally guarantee that   
this will turn out all right."   
Ranko relaxed considerably, warming to this person. She laughed,   
thinking back on how frustrating her life had been. "Oh, Belldandy. I   
only wish you could say that would be true forever. Things have a habit   
of going horribly wrong for me. Huh?"   
Belldandy wasn't listening, her head was thrown fully back and her   
face was wrapped in concentration. Their clothing, hair and loose   
objects swirling around them in an unseen wind. A beam of light escaped   
from Belldandy's forehead, rocketing skyward, where it split the crowds. 

The goddess fell back into a more normal state and beamed at Ranko.   
"I am very happy to inform you that your wish has been approved!"   
And Ranko thought she'd learned to be less careless. Then she   
remembered what that wish had been and she almost hugged the goddess.   
"You mean *this* will turn out alright? The wish, the engagements,   
everything?"   
Belldandy did look concerned. "Well, I did contact my sister Urd.   
She said that your file is extremely thick, more than any one goddess   
could handle. But while I cannot guarantee everything, there is much   
that I can do to help out." She held out her hand to be taken. Ranko   
took it.   
"For instance, your curse has helped you, but also put you in   
danger. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen. Will you let me help?"   
Ranko nodded her acceptance. Belldandy closed her eyes and for a   
moment the two of them glowed brightly.   
Belldandy wavered, and Ranko caught her. "That was harder than I   
thought. But you should... have..."   
The goddess passed out. Ranko caught hold of her and swung her up   
into her arms. Should have... Control? She tried willing a change.   
Nothing.   
"Oh, well. I guess I'll learn about it later." Ranko remembered that   
the Ucchan was near. It had been so many lives since she'd seen it that   
she'd briefly forgotten.   
"Well, gotta get hot water if I'm going to go home." 

A soaking wet Ranko entered the Ucchan, Belldandy in arms.   
Ukyo looked up from the customers she was serving. "Hey, Ran-chan.   
Isn't that a different girl than you were carrying around earlier   
today?"   
Ranko giggled. "Yeah, it is. I can't wait to tell you the story.   
Hey, do you mind if I drop her off in your room?"   
"Oh, I don't know. I'm not used to strange men in my room." Ucchan   
played with her.   
"So who's a man?" Ranko responded with a tease and a wink.   
Ukyo laughed. "But you *are* strange."   
"Got that right. Do you mind?"   
"Love nothing better. I hope to be *married* to a strange man soon.   
Come down soon, okay?" She waved a spatula at Ranko. "No ravishing women   
on my bed."   
"Well, I dunno, *I* can think of a woman I'd love to ravish on your   
bed. See ya in a bit!" Ranko dashed upstairs.   
The customers were staring at her.   
Ukyo thought about how to explain it, then gave it up, pouring   
another okanomiyaki happily. 

Ranma trotted downstairs, still soaking wet but male. He grabbed a   
tray and began moving among tables.   
"Say Ran-chan, how long have you been in the restaurant business?"   
Ucchan deftly tossed him a finished okanomiyaki, which he smoothly   
caught on a fresh plate and slid before a customer.   
"Ah, never. My family's rich."   
She paused in the act of throwing him another, then tossed it to   
him. He caught it just as easily and placed it before another paying   
customer. "Hey, now I can't believe that. You handle yourself too   
easily."   
Ranma whisked up a tray full of dirty dishes and sailed behind the   
counter. He hadn't dumped the dishes in the sink before they were   
already out and drying. Had she blinked? Ucchan had been sure those were   
dirty. Then they were dry and stacked, with Ranma putting away the   
drying cloth.   
Ukyo shook herself. She was sure she hadn't blinked.   
"Say, do you cook?"   
Ranma pecked her on the cheek and sailed back over the counter.   
"Wouldn't presume. You happen to cook okanomiyaki to perfection. I'm too   
afraid that if I try I'll ruin your restaurant's reputation."   
She tossed him another pancake, he caught it. She smiled wickedly,   
and threw three more. Was that a tear in his eye? He seemed to be   
enjoying himself.   
He scooted back over to her. "Ahh, reminds me of the good old days   
when Great Grandmother tried to bean me in the head with a bowl of   
ramen. Well, six bowls of ramen, actually."   
Ukyo tossed another okanomiyaki halfway across the room, Ranma was   
under it. She didn't hesitate, tossing six more in rapid succession, all   
in different corners of the dining area. Ranma not only caught them all,   
he served them with aplomb.   
Ukyo settled into this game in earnest. 

Half an hour later the Ucchan was filled to capacity with a line   
waiting outside. But Ranma and Ucchan were laughing too hard to continue   
their game.   
"Sorry Ucchan," he kissed her. "But I have to go. No doubt all the   
people waiting to kill me are getting impatient, and I have to go hide   
my latest fiance in the closet so you don't see her and find out."   
"Well, of course. You wouldn't want me to know. But I thought the   
closet was full. Don't you have three in there already?" Ukyo teased.   
"Oh, no. You're thinking of the dresser. That's just where I keep my   
backup fiances, the one's I'm just stringing along. You know, free food,   
a little snuggling, but nothing serious? No, I only have two that I'm   
keeping in the closet."   
Ukyo glittered at him cutely. "Do I get my own shelf?"   
"Well of course you do. Why, you're in the top three *easily!*"   
Ucchan glowed at her future husband. She feigned concern. "But, my   
dearest Ran-chan, wouldn't you get lonely? I mean, with *only* three   
fiances won't you grow bored?"   
He posed, as if accepting a hardship. "I know, but it is a burden I   
am prepared to accept. Luckily, I can always fall back on one of the   
spares I've stuffed in the ceiling tiles."   
The two of them collapsed together in mirth.   
The customers thought it was funny up to the point when Ranma dashed   
upstairs to fetch down Belldandy. She was still sleeping, so he merely   
carried her out of the restaurant in his arms.   
Then the customers, thinking this was staged, thought it was   
hilarious. 

Ranma arrived home, evading no fewer than three attempts by old   
women to fling water on him while `cleaning the sidewalk.' He'd gotten   
wise when he realized that they never seemed to toss the water all that   
high or far until he came by. Getting soaked while passing overhead had   
sort of clued him in that something was going on.   
But he'd evaded them. And, still male, he jumped over the gate to   
home. The guards weren't used to his display of acrobatics yet, but he   
figured he didn't care. Ranma went inside and handed off Belldandy into   
the faithful care of some of the maids under Priory.   
"Hi, this is Belldandy. Would you please prepare some rooms for her   
and put her to bed?"   
"Of course, young master. Shall she be staying long?" This was the   
butler's oblique way of asking if she was going to be another bride.   
Ranma thought about the wish. "Very long, Priory. Or at least I hope   
so. Anyway, goodnight!"   
He ran off to bed, while behind him whispering and speculation began   
among the maids.   
Priory smiled as he gave the order to open up another suite. 

Ranma dreamed.   
There had been a swirling rainbow, colors fading into deep gray   
mists. Ranma had come to awareness as a girl. She'd spent an hour   
moping, turning the covers around her, too upset to sleep.   
That had really been the crux of it. She was tired, but her anger at   
Happosai wasn't letting her sleep. The mirror hadn't been *that* bad, if   
only the old freak hadn't made it into the madhouse it had been.   
Deciding to go for some hot water, female Ranma slipped out of bed.   
A pair of slippers automatically met her feet as she slid from beneath   
the covers. They had a somewhat jarring effect on her that got her to   
look at things, to see her room for the first time. Her gaze traveled   
over the white down comforter and pink sheets on a deep, soft bed, the   
stuffed animals on chairs, the long tee shirt she was wearing over   
yellow panties, the little panda slippers that had found her feet.   
True to form, Ranma had started screaming.   
The woman who had answered those cries turned out to be his mother.   
But it had taken her close to eleven hours of care and concern to get   
certain things across to her child.   
Like the fact that Ranma had been *born* a woman. 

Ranma woke in a cold sweat, shudders quaking his frame. He sat up   
and grabbed his head. No, that hadn't been fun. Perhaps a necessary step   
in becoming who he was now. Still, it hadn't been fun, though being with   
his mother had been nice.   
Delivering Akane and Kuno's baby had not been.   
Ranma stretched his limbs, looked at his clock. Close to midnight,   
not time for even the earliest riser. He went back to bed.   
And dreamed. 

Dreamed of soft, white flesh under his hand, of ruby lips, and   
dancing eyes. Of pounding a stake through Lita's heart, and sleeping in   
a room hung with garlic.   
In all not nearly as bad as that time he'd married Akane. With the   
vampire Rae he'd enjoyed glorious, sun-filled days of love and laughter.   
She'd only become a vampire scout at night, letting them enjoy the sun   
together while it lasted.   
He'd never found out where Akane hid that mallet. 

Ranma woke refreshed and well-rested. By now it was automatic to   
reach over and pluck a snack from the tray, today it was blueberry   
muffins filled with jam, and grab the morning's paper.   
He supposed his `former self' had read the financial pages or the   
comics, he had use for neither. The front page read "Mars to Marry!"   
with a subsidiary article that detailed Japan's reaction.   
The first story retold events at the Cherry Hill Park, somehow   
skipping the helicopters and going on to tell about how the Scouts had   
defeated a raving maniac (officially unidentified) who had begun   
attacking helpless park visitors. The paper told that during the fight,   
in a moment of great emotion, an upset Mars had blamed the villain for   
spoiling a very special day, revealing that she had that day accepted a   
proposal of marriage.   
Very little was known of the Sailor's social lives, but that one   
incident had sparked enormous public interest. A popular clothing   
manufacturer would be coming out with bridal attire based on styles   
unique to Mars' costume, and a `Wedding Dress Mars' was being rushed to   
stores by a major toy company. Orders were already stacking up on these   
items.   
The subsidiary article announced that the Japanese government had   
met and were expected to deal with the possibility of making the day of   
the announcement a national holiday.   
Ranma dropped his paper in surprise, thereby missing the article on   
page three about the recent string of panty thefts. 

In the kitchen of the Saotome mansion three women were to meet.   
Belldandy had risen early, recharged and refreshed, and found herself in   
a wonderful room with blue carpet and draperies.   
A maid had shown her the garden, and now she wandered into the   
kitchen holding a basket full of strawberries.   
Nodoka looked up from where she was kneading dough, her arms covered   
in flour to the elbows. "Good morning!" she beamed, earning a responding   
glow from the girl. "You must be Belldandy. Priory left a note for me on   
how Ranma brought you home with him last evening. I'm sorry I wasn't   
awake to greet you."   
Belldandy assumed a cute expression. "Oh no, really. You don't have   
to be sorry just because of me. I was given a *wonderful* room and feel   
very happy. I was just in your garden."   
Nodoka blinked. Those were strawberries. Somehow it seemed so like   
her son to find someone who would be able to gather strawberries out of   
season.   
Belldandy giggled. "Yes, your son is an amazing person. May I help?"   
She asked, indicating the dough Nodoka had been kneading.   
Nodoka smiled. "Of course, dear. Have you done much baking before?"   
"No, but I would *love* to learn."   
Kasumi floated in on a cloud of happiness. 

--Sorry folks, I would love to write more, but the image of those three   
together in a kitchen boggles the mind. *I* can't even see what's going   
on in there, they're sending off such powerful Domestic Tranquility   
rays. Though I should imagine plants get healthier and small woodland   
animals start appearing where they have no right to be. In fact, if a   
unicorn or a rainbow shows up unexplained now you know why.-- 

To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes:   
You know, I tried to play it your way. I lived by the rules. I paid   
attention to the criticism and advice that I was receiving. I even wrote   
out a plot in advance.   
Then I discovered that I wasn't having any fun.   
So shove it, it's not my muse. I will continue mucking with reality   
as I see fit. I will fold, spindle and mutilate it. Because that's what   
I do best, and if you're reading this, then you liked the first two   
enough not to be complaining about it.   
And in case it's escaped everyone's notice. This is *not* a serious   
work. 

So far each part of this has announced its own end. I just can't   
write more in that part, so I post it and go on. It has nothing to do   
with length, I don't think, merely activity. I've been fitting more in   
less space.   
The bathroom scene was so I could see how this new Ranma would   
react. Didn't comport himself too badly, considering.   
Now this is just a thought. But how does everyone feel about a   
Nabiki - Urd alliance? 

FYI: I decided to make the Scouts of an age with the Nerima gang. Why?   
For the romance, of course. 

And now a line from that popular song:   
"It's my story and I'll write what I want to, write what I want   
to..." 

Html conversions and a web site are under way. But they detract time   
from the real business of writing. So I'm sure you can forgive me in   
that I don't divert too *much* time. 

I had been giving serious consideration to calling this quits at   
part five or so, but then I got an email or two with just this nifty   
idea I *had* to try, and well...   
As always I can be got ahold of at the aol address of skysaber, and   
most of you have already found me at my posting address. 

P.S. Does anybody know how I can modify my fics after they've   
reached archive status? Not that I have any HUGE changes in mind (or   
else I'd repost) I just want to know.   



	4. 4

jared@netuser.com> 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Four   
Ranma, the Musical 

by Jared Ornstead 

A serious Disclaimer   
Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. 

Sailor Moon and its associated characters created by Naoko Takeuchi.   
AMG, Iczelion and all other characters belong to their copyright owners.   
No infringement intended.   
Everything else is based on memories of high school plays, and while   
not only the property of the original owners, should not even be   
regarded as accurate. 

************************************************   
Dawn was not far over the horizon when Ranma alighted in Ukyo's   
window. "Hey, Ucchan." He called her from her light slumber.   
She woke up, blinked and smiled at him, then sat up, holding the   
sheets to her bosom. "Good morning, Ran-chan!"   
He smiled, hopping down onto the floor of her room, sinking to one   
knee. "Yeah, Ucchan. Listen, I'm going to ask you to marry me. But   
before I do that I have to explain something. Is that alright?"   
Her eyes shimmered with light, a light in which every lovely thing   
was mirrored. She gave him her hand and let him continue.   
Ranma took her hand and gathered his breath. "Well, I told you   
yesterday about the fiance thing."   
She giggled, still glittering. "Yeah, I'd never been so surprised in   
my life. Well, *maybe* when you were a girl, then a guy, then a girl   
again. When we're married can we play lots of water sports?"   
He loved his Ucchan.   
"And you know about the people trying to kill me part."   
"That's not a problem. Anyone stupid enough to come after you will   
have to get through me too. I've had martial arts training."   
"Okay, well here comes the hard part..." He began.   
She drew her knees up to her chest and leaned into them, still   
letting him hold her hand. "Are you serious? What more can you add to a   
sex changing girl magnet with multiple death threats hanging over him?"   
"Can I just say it gets weird?" He temporized.   
Her eyes got wide. "And the other stuff isn't? What else can there   
be? Do you have some horrible disease? Hang out with the undead? Listen   
to Elvis records and carpet your walls? What? I'll believe anything you   
say, Ran-chan, but it won't make me miss my chance of marrying you."   
"No, yes, and it muffles sound well. But that's not what I was   
referring to."   
"You're not kidding." It was a statement. "So what could it be that   
you think is so terrible that I'd give up on my one true love?"   
This reminded him again just why it was he loved his Ucchan. She   
gave herself totally, and not mindlessly either. Just a total blend of   
loyalty and love.   
He wanted to return that. He wanted it very much.   
"Would you mind if I married two or three wives?"   
Ucchan's smile didn't waver. "Well, all that time you'd spend in   
jail would make it difficult to have children."   
His relief sparkled. "Only if they found something stronger than   
stone to build things to hold me in with."   
Mischief lit up her eyes. "We could invest in a rock quarry to pick   
up on the new business."   
"Get an escaped convict with every order?"   
"We'd corner the market. Probably have to expand."   
"Might be fun." He admitted. "But the business, I'm afraid, is   
destined to fail. My mother assures me that my samurai roots allow me to   
take more than one wife and not get arrested for it. Something about   
ancient tradition still having some value."   
Ukyo was smiling, hugging her knees, by the time he was done. "Stuff   
like that just keeps cropping up with you, doesn't it?" She drew her   
knees up even further, looking unbearably cute.   
He hugged her, feeling better. "True enough."   
Then he got a wonderful idea. "Hey, if I can show you something   
stranger will you believe me?"   
Ukyo was having lots of fun. "Sure, if you can show me something   
stranger than that I'll believe you. Heck, I'll gladly *marry* you,   
curse and other wives included. I can think of lots worse things."   
Ranma blinked. "Really? There are some?"   
She hit him with a pillow. "*Hey*, will you get on with it? Show me   
something amazing already. I want to be the envy of all my girlfriends   
who don't have cursed husbands. So hurry up, will ya?"   
He started to look around. "I need cold water for this."   
Splash!   
Ucchan put the empty glass back on her nightstand. "A girl never   
knows when she'll have to turn a guest into another gender. She has to   
be prepared." She winked at Ranko.   
Ranko grinned back. "Now you have to promise to keep this secret,   
Ucchan."   
"I promise."   
"Earth Power Make-Up!" 

Ranma whistled as he walked home. Ucchan was going to marry him. He   
allowed warm feelings to seep around his heart as he ducked his head   
under a thrown shuriken. He hopped over the next several hundred thrown   
shuriken that followed quickly after, then grabbed a garbage can lid to   
block the next couple of thousand, turning the lid into a mass of spikes   
with a handle.   
He finally turned to his antagonist. "How many of those things can   
you carry?" He asked the darkness.   
Sasuke, hidden in shadows, was about to call out a taunt when he   
realized that he was not alone. Pausing only long enough to earn a   
disapproving glare from the hulking, humanoid thing, Sasuke raced for   
home.   
Ranma examined the darkness. Nothing. Tossing away the mess of   
shuriken he continued on his way. If there were any more threats like   
that... Urk!   
A fourteen foot tall, metal skinned creature standing on two legs   
had Ranma by the throat, holding him one-handed while he struggled.   
Ranma's feet were a couple of yards off the ground.   
Strangling, Ranma hit a pressure point on its hand, but either the   
skin was too thick or it didn't have the same nerve structures as a man.   
It swung him like a doll and Ranma's body crushed through a wall, his   
neck still caught in the vice-like grasp.   
Summoning a ball of chi energy around his fist, Ranma hauled back   
and struck the creature's thumb with all his power. The explosion, right   
next to his face, might have been overkill, because it stunned him for a   
handful of seconds.   
Teetering on the edge of consciousness he could feel the creature's   
skin next to his and wondered why he was breathing.   
Then he realized that it was because he'd shorn off the beast's   
thumb. It was lying on his chest, brushing his neck, while he was lying   
on his back in the road, gulping in air.   
Realizing that this happy state of affairs was at best temporary he   
vaulted from his back to a nearby rooftop, turning to scan the area as   
he did so.   
Nothing. Whatever it was it was gone.   
Ran-chan looked at the sky. Dang, if he didn't hurry he was going to   
be late. Eyes completely unrelated to the creature watched him from the   
morning shadows. 

Ranma had found out that previous to his `disappearance' he'd had   
private tutors instead of school. After he'd been gone for some time   
those tutors had been released, and he'd begged his mom not to rehire   
them.   
For the very special reason that he'd learned that Rae and Ukyo   
shared the same class in high school. It wasn't Furinkan, but he could   
always contact Nabiki on his own time. Spending several days a week in   
company with his two true loves was just too good a chance to miss. So   
Ranma had arranged with his mother to be enrolled in Rae's school. It   
was all set, he even got there on time.   
The teacher announced him before the class, mentioning that he was a   
new student and so on, then let him go find a seat. They opened their   
books.   
"Ranma," the teacher began. "This is our English class. I would like   
to have some idea of your degree of knowledge before I begin today.   
Would you care to give us an example?"   
She'd intended for him to read one of the many sample dialogs from   
the book. But he took a look around himself, shrugged, and decided `Why   
not?' He slammed it closed. Rising from his seat, and nodding to Rae, he   
went over to Ucchan.   
Music began to play, and before the teacher had time to react to the   
strange event he had began to sing, softly, and in fluent English, a   
song from Rogers and Hammerstein's `The King and I.'   
**   
(drawing Ukyo from the seat by her hand)   
"We've just been introduced,   
I do not know you well.   
But when the music started something drew me to your side. 

(gesturing to the class at large, using the motion to get close to her)   
So many men and girls,   
are in each other's arms. 

(slowly and with great tenderness)   
It made me think... we might be... similarly occupied. 

Shall we... dance?   
(taking her in his arms and suddenly springing forward into a waltz) 

On a bright cloud of music shall we fly?   
(guiding her effortlessly through the room as if people waltzed between   
desks all the time) 

Shall we dance?   
(twirl and spin) 

Shall we then say goodnight and mean goodbye?   
(releasing her and waving his hand, at the suggestion) 

Or perchance?   
(sliding conspiratorially close to her again) 

When the last little star has left the sky,   
(sliding her into a reverse embrace, arms around her from behind) 

(rocking with her gently to and fro)   
Shall we still be together, with our arms around each other   
and shall you be my new romance? 

(facing her and mock-instructing her)   
On the clear understanding that this kind of thing can happen, 

(catching her up again and whisking her away)   
Shall we dance? Shall we dance? Shall we dance? 

**   
Returning Ukyo smoothly and breathlessly to her seat he whisked Rae   
out of hers in the same sweeping motion. The music slowed and he began   
to whisper a song from `Hello Dolly' by the same authors, while guiding   
her gently by the waist.   
Hearts had filled every female eye in the room, and those girls who   
could understand what he was singing were being pestering to translate   
for their friends, who knew that something terribly romantic was going   
on and so wanted every detail.   
**   
"When there's someone you hardly know,   
but wish to be closer to   
Remember,   
that she can be near to you   
when you're dancing! 

Though you've only just said `Hello'   
she's already someone who   
can,   
make all your daydreams appear to you   
when you're dancing! 

Make the music weave a spell.   
While away your worries.   
Things look almost twice as well.   
When they're slightly blurry! 

And around and around you'll go.   
your spirits will hit the top.   
And,   
now that we're dancing   
who cares if we ever stop!" 

**   
The slow dance he'd led Rae through had left her almost as   
breathless as Ukyo. With gentlemanly courtesy he seated her, then took   
to his seat as the teacher regarded them in bug-eyed astonishment, too   
amazed to even respond to what she'd seen.   
Glares of envy met his two partners and Ranma was the subject of   
frantic female adoration as he regained his desk, a romantic display of   
that magnitude having been restricted to daydreams and movies before.   
Those girls who knew the relevant details were already being dragged   
under desks to reveal everything to their friends on pain of death.   
Ranma cocked his head innocently at his teacher over folded hands.   
"Did I get some words wrong?" 

Amy was frowning as she worked in class. Serena looked over at her   
in shock. "Don't tell me *you* didn't do the homework!?" Ascribing her   
own reasons for discomfort onto her friend.   
Amy shook her head. "Made three copies, just in case something   
happened, and don't ask me to give you one. No, I was just looking   
over..." she swiftly checked for eavesdroppers. "I was reading back some   
of that data from that fight where we met Earth, and some things are   
very odd."   
"Like what?" Serena's stomach growled, and with a swift look around   
she began to sneak food from her lunch box.   
"Like I don't think we killed that youma. There's an energy surge   
just before your tiara hit. It might have gotten away and left a dummy   
to be destroyed, because I *don't* read the normal energy backlash from   
destroying such a powerful creature."   
"You mean it might still be sneaking around?"   
"Let's face it, we had alot of distractions that day. I forgot to   
perform a routine energy scan. It could very well still be out there,   
though probably very weakened." 

At about that time Genma arrived at a secret place, bringing with   
him a bag of lacy undergarments which he dropped before his evil lord.   
"Master, I have brought these to aid in your recovery."   
Happosai exhaled from his pipe, managing somehow to look more upset   
than usual. "You're pathetic, Genma. A *true* student of Anything Goes   
would be willing to sacrifice anything, even his own flesh and blood, to   
aid his master in his recovery. That girl isn't even related to you, why   
don't you bring her down here and let me grope her a bit."   
It was a command.   
Genma bowed his utter obeisance. "Master, I beg of you. I would   
sacrifice Ukyo to you in an instant, but she is a powerful martial   
artist." He couldn't finish.   
"And *you're* afraid of her, is that it?" Happosai roared, but   
didn't have the energy to get really upset. "Oh, Genma. You really   
should have got married. Stealing children just isn't the same. No   
matter how many potions you feed them the control just isn't what it   
could be. It never reaches what a real descendant would have given you   
anyway."   
Genma scraped before his master. "But master! It was *your* plan we   
followed to get me that Saotome woman." He still drooled a little over   
what might have been, that girl had had everything. "Think of all the   
children I could have given you had that succeeded."   
Happosai smacked his pupil. "DON'T REMIND ME!" His eyes grew soft   
again. "Ah, all the lovely panties and bras she would have bought with   
that fortune of hers. I can almost see the lovely daughters that she   
would have produced. AND YOU HAD TO LOSE HER TO THAT WHATSHISNAME!"   
Genma's hackles raised a bit. It wasn't a memory he liked either.   
For the thousandth time he asked. "But Master, I had already given her   
the potion. Why didn't it..."   
Happosai smacked him. "DON'T ASK! I don't have any better answer for   
you this time. I don't KNOW why it didn't work! It should have made a   
slave of that woman. Something must have broken the spell!" 

Lunch was a problem. Ranma had envisioned a quiet, relaxed meal with   
Rae and Ucchan, but he wasn't even out of the classroom before he had a   
following in the form of a horde of young women chasing him around,   
trying to share their lunch period with him.   
It wasn't as if even with his appetite he could eat everything, nor   
did he want a gaggle of lovesick schoolgirls, he wanted to eat with his   
friends. He vaulted to the top of the school building, but the girls who   
were already there found this a wonderful opportunity to share time with   
him.   
Sighing, he decided that now would be a good time to visit Nabiki   
and get that info he'd been after. Through methods best left unnamed he   
arrived in the Furinkan lunchroom just slightly after lunch period   
began. Ranma immediately sought out his target, sitting at a table, her   
agents handling most of the business.   
He slipped in beside her. "Say, Nabiki, what's up?"   
A mixture of emotions played over her features, finally settling on   
a somewhat shy smile.   
"Aren't you in the least bit worried that Kuno will attack us   
again?" She chided.   
His eyes twinkled. "Gee, when I saw him yesterday it looked like he   
wouldn't be out of surgery for awhile." Acting on sudden impulse, he   
asked. "Say, how much did you have bet that I'd come here today?"   
She blushed into her cup. "A little."   
He grinned. "And how much do you have going that I'll say something   
pretty? I'll bet that engagement story sold for alot."   
"Hottest selling news item today. And while I don't have much   
running... at those odds it could explode nicely." The unmentioned   
request was written in her eyes.   
He was in too good a mood to let that pass.   
"Really? Well, we can't let the dojo starve, can we? You may prepare   
to collect, Nabiki. But this is a favor, nothing more."   
Ranma seized a stein out of stuff-space and stood up on the table,   
saluting Nabiki in fine opera style. Music from Romberg's `The Student   
Prince' began to rumble in the background.   
Ranma opened up in full voice.   
**   
"Drink, Drink, Drink,   
to eyes that are bright, like stars when they're shining on me! 

Drink, Drink, Drink,   
to lips that are red, and sweet as the fruit on the tree! 

(raising his glass, he toasted)   
Here's the hope that those bright eyes will shine,   
lovingly, longingly, soon into mine! 

May those lips that are red and sweet,   
tonight, with joy, my own lips meet!   
(he cresendoed, then began stomping the table in time to the music) 

Drink, Drink, Drink,   
to arms that are white, and warm as the rose in the sun! 

Drink, Drink, Drink,   
to hearts that will love, but only when I am the one! 

(again he toasted)   
Here's the hope that those soft arms will twine,   
tenderly, trustingly, soon around mine!   
May she give me a priceless boon.   
Her love beneath, the sweet May moon!" 

**   
He ended with some vocal gymnastics, then hopped down off the table.   
There was a stunned silence in the lunch room, then thunderous applause. 

Nabiki sat stunned. She'd just been serenaded in front of the whole   
lunchroom. A brief pang caught her as she realized that she couldn't   
sell information so widely known. But it was swiftly smothered beneath   
wonder. Ranma rejoined her at the table, catching the arm of one of her   
agents.   
"I could be wrong about this, but it might be profitable to start   
laying odds on first kiss, first date, that sort of thing. Your boss   
looks a little out of it just now, so you might want to lay estimates to   
be finalized later."   
Then, when they didn't get together, she'd clean up.   
Ranma gazed at Nabiki, then waved his fingers before her face. Hmm,   
clearly he'd overdone it. "Ahem. You might want to take bets on when she   
starts moving again, too."   
Sighing ruefully, but in good humor, he left the lunchroom,   
practically stepping on Akane on his way out. She'd been following the   
tide of students in, wondering what the commotion was.   
Ranma was a creature of balance, and though he'd spent *many* lives   
twisted, mangled, hurt and even killed by this girl (thankfully he'd   
found the Destiny Ring had seemed to trigger automatically at his death,   
something along the lines of `I wish that hadn't happened', though often   
with pretty weird results) he still felt that inside she was basically a   
decent person, if one could keep away from the sharp end.   
Serenading her sister and ignoring her was a guaranteed infallible   
way of bringing out Akane's worst side, no matter what the cause. And   
once it was out she'd never yet found a way of putting it away again.   
He could see that there wasn't any help for it. Opera was full of   
love songs, in many languages, for any reason. He snatched her up and   
made a mighty show of it, not forgetting that Nabiki had feelings too,   
and yet knowing that unless the younger sister received the better share   
of it there would never again be peace in the Tendo home.   
Nabiki would accept an explanation of why things didn't turn her   
way, Akane would not.   
Besides, it would make the betting more interesting. Business would   
boom. 

Ranma was beginning to believe there might be disadvantages to this   
public school thing. He vaulted off of school grounds and onto a nearby   
rooftop, where he practically ran into a darkly dressed young man in the   
midst of casting a spell.   
"Jadeite!" Surprised recognition robbed Ranma of his normal caution. 

The general of the negaverse turned to face him, feral and cunning.   
Ranma realized that there wasn't time to go for the other Scouts, he   
charged the general in a martial arts attack.   
Jadeite held up his hands to block and a powerful force field   
stopped Ranma's assault.   
"I don't know who you are." Jadeite seethed, maintaining his energy   
field. "But you cannot be allowed to interfere with the negaverse!"   
Ranma launched another blow, it slowed to a stop mere inches from   
Jadeite's chest, unable to go further.   
Jadeite laughed. "There's no way you can hurt me. My defense field   
will keep your flesh more than a foot away from my body. That's more   
than enough to stop *any* unarmed combat technique."   
He began to summon another spell. "Guardian Youma, come forth!"   
Ranma paid little attention to the monster forming except to knock   
it from the top of the building. "So you can stop any *unarmed* combat,   
huh?" Ranma smiled smugly, and drew forth the sword his mother always   
insisted he carry.   
Jadeite blasted at Ranma, the martial artist dodged it effortlessly,   
springing inside the general's defenses and lopping off his head.   
Ranma stood with bloody sword, looking down at the decapitated body   
of the negaverse general. "Dang, that was easy." The head bounced once   
and was still.   
The body exploded, taking with it the upper half of the building. 

Ukyo and Rae looked up from where they were eating to see a distant   
building explode.   
"Gotta be Ranma." Ukyo closed her portable grill.   
Rae looked over at the other girl. "You know him that well, huh?"   
Both girls excused themselves. "Hey, look, I have to be somewhere.   
Catch ya later, kay?"   
"Yeah, sure. Look, I'll see you back in class, alright?"   
They ran their separate ways, each looking for a place to hide for   
just a minute. 

Wheezing, gasping for consciousness, Ranma found himself in an   
alley. Groaning, he hauled himself into a sitting position, which   
brought into his field of vision a little girl of about thirteen,   
dressed cutely but strangely in red and pink, wielding a croquet mallet. 

She hmmpphed. "Ha! I *thought* there were bugs around here! First I   
take care of a creature and now you appear! Take this!" The little girl   
charged forward, intent on striking him with her mallet.   
Ranma dodged. Getting hit by her wasn't likely to hurt very much,   
but he wasn't in the mood to find out.   
The little girl swung at him a couple of dozen more times. Ranma   
evaded, finally jumping over a wall, on the other side accidentally   
landing on a man who'd been sitting in the gutter.   
"How DARE you!!!" The man howled, rage bringing him to his feet   
swinging his huge umbrella.   
"Hey, man, it was an accident!" Ranma ducked the blow, which   
shattered the wall behind him.   
"Do you say that every time you step on a man's head!?" The man   
continued screaming, swinging his blows with violent abandon.   
"Well, no." Ranma conceded.   
"I'll make you PAY for your affront against me!" The violent man   
thrust forward with bone shattering force. Ranma bent over nearly double   
to evade it, which gave him a perfect view of the little girl who was   
now standing in the recently created hole in the wall.   
"Gotcha!" She squealed, beaning him in the face with her mallet.   
Ranma turned into a puff of mist and disappeared.   
Skuld eyed Ryoga, as if considering. He backed off, impressed and a   
little afraid of his life. "Uh, I think I have somewhere else I have to   
go. Excuse me!" He ran off, nearly upsetting a few small automobiles in   
his wake. 

In the Saotome mansion Belldandy looked up from a cup she'd been   
polishing. "Oh, no!" 

Amy's computer beeped at her, since she was eating with Lita and   
Serena she had no compunction about checking it right there.   
She placed her sandwich down carefully, afraid she'd drop it.   
"What's wrong Amy?" Lita asked in concern.   
Amy double checked her reading. "The Universal Trace routine has   
just reported the death of Jadeite."   
Serena stopped stuffing her face. "Really? That's *great*, what   
happened to him?"   
Amy wasn't rejoicing. "I'm not sure, but what concerns me is that   
Ranma's trace disappears soon after. And I'm reading an explosion and   
building fire."   
Lita grew serious. "He could be in trouble! I'd say this was Sailor   
business!"   
"Right!" Serena called, grabbing for her brooch.   
Amy stood up with them, but she was very afraid that they were   
already too late. 

***** 

It was night in Nerima.   
With a blaze of light a hole in reality flared into shape and out   
stepped a young man, well built and handsome. He took one look around   
him and began to weep openly. Rearing back he uttered a cry of rending   
agony.   
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   
Then fell to the sidewalk and began to sob. 

Residents woke at the Cat Cafe. Cologne sitting up and turning   
sharply to the distant noise.   
"What is it, Great Grandmother?" Shampoo asked from her bed.   
"That, child, is the sound of ultimate suffering. And it sounded   
like son-in-law. Come, we'd best be going." She did a chestnut clothing   
change and went to Mousse's room. "Business is closed until we return,   
Mousse. Clean up, and don't even dare to follow us."   
Similar scenes were repeated in other places. 

Cologne bounced her staff into view of a weeping and huddled Ranma,   
one that at first glance, was utterly broken. Not even enough left to   
care that he was being seen. The sight was so unlike what they were used   
to that the two Amazons stopped short. Cologne quickly assessed the   
situation and put a hand on the young man's shoulder.   
"There, child. What is it?" She asked in a voice that was much   
kinder than her usual wont.   
Without a word, not even looking up or pausing in his tears, Ranma   
gathered her in and began to hold her, like a fiercely dangerous teddy   
bear. But a bear that was content to remain, at least for the moment,   
completely harmless.   
Cologne looked at her great granddaughter. Her eyes communicating as   
well as words. "Whatever it is is terrible for him. You'd best help him   
if you ever hope to gain him for your husband."   
Shampoo found herself at a loss. What to do with a weeping husband?   
She knelt beside him and began to stroke his hair, pleasantly. Not   
knowing as she did so how much it hearkened back to her time spent as a   
cat.   
Ranma didn't care, gathering her into his arms as well.   
The two Amazons didn't know what to do with themselves. Hesitantly,   
almost fearfully, they began to hug Ranma back.   
"There, child." Cologne promised. "Whatever it is you have our word   
that we will do what we can."   
Ranma froze in their arms, then slid out of their grasp like an   
icicle. For a horrid instant Cologne was certain that her words had   
offended the boy. Then she saw that his gaze had been drawn to a new   
arrival. Ryoga had miraculously found his way to the scene.   
And the pig boy wasn't sparing words.   
"Ha! Pitiful, Ranma. Here weeping like... like a baby! And in the   
arms of another woman no less! I will punish you for Akane's sake!"   
The pig-boy charged, but in Ranma's face Cologne saw written death   
itself. She snagged her great granddaughter and got out of the way.   
A wind began to blow from Ranma. Blowing from a man straining at the   
very edge of control. The wind kept Ryoga stationary in spite of his   
attempts to charge.   
"I'm warning you Ryoga." Ranma's voice was level, and just barely   
beyond the edge of his breaking point, half-mad from whatever grief was   
paining him. "Now is *not* the time. Go sleep in Akane's bed again, but   
LEAVE ME ALONE!"   
Ryoga stared in disbelief, then rage gave him power to best the   
wind. He came after Ranma with full intent to main him. "Ranma, how DARE   
you say that before witnesses!"   
"I warned you, Ryoga." The voice was flat, final. It frightened   
Cologne.   
Ryoga stabbed his umbrella at Ranma's face, the latter caught it and   
crumpled it in his grip, throwing the tangled and mangled remnants away   
from him.   
"Ranma! How DARE you!! I needed that umbrella!" The lost boy swung   
at his foe. Ranma caught the wrist, then crushed and mangled his   
opponent's arm, flinging the lost boy away from him.   
Ryoga looked up from where he had fallen, finally seeing the   
expression in Ranma's eyes. The shards of bone poking from his mangled   
limb were not more white than the lost boy's face at seeing those eyes.   
The Tendos came running up. Akane caught sight of Ryoga and   
immediately ran up to him. Seeing that he was hurt (but not knowing the   
extent) she blazed at Ranma, pulling out her mallet and charging.   
"Ranma! You Jerk! You Pervert! How could you *DO* this to Ryoga?"   
Cologne's staff stopped her.   
"Child, if you attack Ranma now there isn't a person on this earth   
who can answer for your life. Whatever has happened to him has caused   
him nearly unimaginable pain. He's not capable of treating you kindly   
just now."   
Akane was inclined to ignore her, as usual. But then she caught the   
look on Ranma's face, and paid attention for once. He wasn't cringing   
away from her, a thing so automatic when she had her mallet out that she   
didn't even look for it anymore, it was just normal. In fact it looked   
as though Ranma could hardly even see her.   
She shrugged past Shampoo's great grandmother. "I don't care!" She   
stormed, bringing the mallet about for action. "You're going to regret   
ever fighting with Ryoga!"   
With a blazing chi fist he blew her mallet into atomic level   
particles, glittering faintly in the breeze. Akane stood staring   
stupidly at her handle, then back at Ranma, then backed off.   
"You're right, Cologne. He really *is* acting weird!"   
Ranma sat back down on the ground and began to cry. Akane moved up   
to comfort him, but her attack was not forgotten and he shot her a   
glance that froze her in place. He did *not* want her touching him just   
now.   
Shampoo was considering attempting to hug him again when Genma came   
running up. Genma saw his son crying and began to shout derisively.   
"Foolish boy! Weakling! Haven't I told you never to cry! Stand up and be   
a MAN for once you pathetic coward!"   
Ranma uncoiled. He sprang at the old man in a dash swifter than   
lightning. Seizing the martial artist by the neck and seat of his gi he   
lifted him up high overhead. "Weakling!? *I'll* show you whose weak!   
*I'll* show you a sniveling coward! I'll show you yourself, old man!!!"   
Swinging his father by the heel he used the old man's face to break   
apart a utility pole. And it was only Cologne's interference that saved   
Genma's back from being snapped over his son's knee.   
Ranma vaulted away, having dropped his old man. Shampoo and Cologne   
followed, more cautiously.   
The Tendos stood shocked, unable to speak. Genma lay sprawled where   
he had fallen, somehow unable to grasp how close he'd come to death.   
"What's gotten into the boy, Tendo?"   
"I don't know, Saotome. But it's obvious that Cologne woman has   
something to do with it."   
"Oh, my." Kasumi observed. "Ranma really wasn't acting himself, was   
he?"   
Nabiki began to wonder how she could turn this situation to her   
financial advantage. 

Ranma raced along the rooftops, but ran for only seconds before   
grief overcame him. He collapsed into an alley, weeping bitterly.   
It was Ukyo that found him.   
She almost didn't recognize him. His posture, and especially his   
crying, were so unlike her Ran-chan. But she had a heart of tenderness   
inside her.   
"Hey, there now." She soothed, putting an arm around him. "What's   
wrong, Ran-chan?"   
He sniffed, then buried his face in her and held on. "Oh, Ucchan! I   
*love* you!" He continued crying, but at slightly lower intensity.   
It was all Ukyo could do not to shoot off sparks. Her grin was   
electric.   
"Hey, let's get you inside. Okay?" She eased him to his feet.   
Ranma allowed himself to be led back toward her restaurant.   
They were almost to the doors when Kodachi appeared. "Hold! You   
wicked girl! What are doing to my Ranma-Darling?"   
Ukyo hefted spatula. "I'm taking him inside, okay? He's upset and   
I'm trying to take care of him!"   
"Take care of *MY* Ranma? How dare you even suggest such a thing you   
brazen hussy?"   
" 'Dachi-chan," Ranma whispered, but it was loud enough to be heard.   
"Don't fight my Ucchan. Please, whatever house we go to doesn't matter.   
Just..." And he passed out from emotional fatigue. 

He awoke in the Tendo home, Nabiki having considerable influence. He   
sat up and began to move to the parlor. Nabiki caught him there.   
"Ah, Ranma. Quite a display you put on there. Of course I managed to   
smooth things over for you. *And* got you out of that Kodachi's   
clutches. You can show your gratitude by doing a photo session for me   
tonight. Kuno's getting hungry for pictures again."   
He spoke to her without emotion. "Stuff it, Nabiki. I'm not feeling   
particularly grateful."   
Nabiki frowned. He shouldn't be reacting like this. Perhaps it was   
time to remind him of her considerable hold over him. "I wouldn't be   
like that Saotome. I've let your tab grow a little large lately, perhaps   
it's time you started paying more of it off. There are those videos and   
things to consider. And I'm sure Akane would... be..."   
Ranma was standing, glaring ice.   
"Nabiki, have you ever considered what danger *you* might be in?   
Charges of blackmail, extortion, racketeering, bribery, under-age   
pornography, and others? I'm sure it's just the beginning. Would you   
like to hear more?"   
She wouldn't release control that easily. "Back down, Saotome. I can   
make your life hell without even blinking."   
He didn't even wince. "That's not something you can afford to be   
concerned with, Nabiki. What you should be thinking of is what you are   
going to do afterward. Just where will you hide, Nabiki? There's nowhere   
you can *go* where I can't find you. I've fought stuff worse than the   
Defense Forces before. Police don't concern me. Do you think you can   
find a martial artist who can defend you? I've torn apart tanks and   
ruined apartment buildings with my bare hands! I can kill ten thousand   
men and not break a sweat. JUST WHERE WILL YOU RUN?"   
Nabiki got the very certain sense that this was out of control.   
"Relax, Saotome. Perhaps we jumped the gun a bit there. I think I   
can even go easy on the interest this time. We'll do the photo shoot   
when you're ready for it. No need to get so steamed."   
Suddenly she recalled him nearly breaking Genma over his knee that   
night. It hadn't been Ranma that had stopped that, he'd almost gone   
through with it. Cologne had been the one who'd prevented him.   
Cologne didn't owe her any favors.   
Nabiki sweated and started to back away. "Uh, look Ranma. Why don't   
you just sit down and enjoy the shade for awhile? I'll go get Dr. Tofu." 

He nodded, no longer the least bit angry. "Sure, Nabiki. Why don't   
you do that, and I'm sorry for yelling at you."   
She ran. 

Ranma regretted his outburst. Subtlety, not force, was his most   
effective tool, and he'd been blowing that from the first minute. This   
was no way to deal with a new reality, no matter how much he missed his   
old one.   
He sighed heavily. His old one. He'd even been calling that reality   
his own, it was a place that had become home to him. A place he'd been   
happy.   
A place he'd wanted to stay.   
"I just wish I could find a way to get back."   
Inside his pocket, the Destiny Ring glittered, not quite so dead   
after all.   
Akane caught him there, lounging. "Hurry, Ranma. Your mom's here!"   
She said it with some concern, then, when he didn't react, tossed a cup   
of water over his head.   
Nodoka entered almost at that same moment. "Why Akane, Ranko! How   
good to see you!"   
Akane tried to hide her nervousness and concern. "Hello, Auntie   
Saotome. Welcome to our home."   
Nodoka noticed Ranko's state. "Why Ranko, dear. What's wrong?"   
Ranko felt this sudden urge to clutch her mother's skirts and tell   
her everything. Instead she summoned the will to reply. "I just lost   
someone I care about, Auntie. It hurt really bad."   
Nodoka could see that it did. Carefully she asked, "I brought some   
packages. Would a new pair of shoes help at all? I promise I won't try   
to make you wear the dress if you're feeling this way."   
The gesture was so genuine that Ranko couldn't help but smile.   
"Thanks, Auntie Saotome. But it always makes you so happy when I wear   
those things that I guess I won't mind."   
Nodoka smiled. It was good to see that it wasn't so bad after all.   
Ranko really was a darling girl. They went upstairs so she could help   
Ranko change, and didn't notice that Akane's jaw had dropped practically   
to the floor. 

Later that afternoon the house was close to full. Soun and Genma (in   
panda form) sat playing at their game, enjoying the cooling breezes and   
a little cheating. Nabiki and Dr. Tofu sat quietly at the table, both   
concerned but not willing to interrupt Ranma with his mother, both of   
whom were still upstairs.   
Akane sat in a pile of snacks, magazines and manga, trying to watch   
TV. So far none of it had helped her take her mind off Ranma. So far   
*everything* he'd done had been so strange for him. She was making   
herself sick with worry, all the time telling herself what a jerk he was   
for making her feel this way.   
A sad, reluctant giggle came from the top of the staircase. All eyes   
were drawn and mouths fell open. Even Dr. Tofu was surprised, knowing   
Ranma's usual preferences.   
Ranko had been subjecting herself to her mother's efforts to cheer   
her, and they had been having an effect. She was still slightly slow and   
weary in her movements, but there was an animation to her they hadn't   
seen this past day.   
But that wasn't the cause of their reaction. Ranko was all decked   
out in a white and pink dress, trimmed with ribbons and ruffles, with a   
flouncy, frilly skirt fluffed out with petticoats. Her hair was loose   
and decked with matching ribbons. Heels and kid gloves completed the   
attire. She and her mother were flouncing down the stairs. Ranko giggled   
again at something her mother said, grasped the rim of her sun hat, and   
made her way down the last few steps.   
Tofu adjusted his glasses. "Hmm." He said analytically.   
Nabiki couldn't help but stare. This was just too bizarre. She   
forced her face flat. "Well, I never thought I'd see the day. `Ranko' is   
wearing makeup." Her droll tone masked her real feelings.   
"Are those *pantyhose*?" Genma flashed a sign, unable to believe his   
senses.   
"Oh, Ranko dear." Nodoka caught the girl to adjust her shoulder.   
"One of your straps is showing. Here, let me get it right."   
"Ranko is wearing a *bra*?" Akane bellowed incredulously.   
Nodoka flashed her a disapproving look. "There's no need to announce   
it to the neighborhood, Akane dear. And yes, she is. It's high time that   
Ranko started. It would be rude of you to tease her."   
Soun was crying, watering the room around him and wailing about his   
son in law becoming a woman. Genma, Akane and Nabiki thrust into his   
face with raging battle auras. Soun remembered himself just as Nodoka   
gave him a curious look. Laughing it off he made some excuse and became   
curiously engrossed in the TV.   
The room sweated, Tofu leaning out of the crowd to get a better look   
at Ranko.   
Ranko went on tiptoes to kiss her mother on the cheek, then got a   
startled look and brought her hand to her lips. "Oh! Auntie Saotome, I'm   
so sorry. You were so kind and I was so wrapped up. I almost forgot to   
tell you. Ranma told me that if he got a chance he would call you   
today."   
Nodoka's eyes grew round and her smile brightened by two degrees.   
She gazed around the room, not really seeing anybody. "Would you excuse   
me please? I should be rushing home. Thank you, Ranko. I'm glad we could   
talk. I'm so glad you're feeling better. See you tomorrow!"   
Nodoka was gone.   
Eyes in the room were huge.   
"Wow!" Nabiki breathed, impressed in spite of herself.   
Genma pulled out a sign. "And what happens when you *don't* call   
her?"   
Ranko scowled at him. "And who says I'm not?" She turned around,   
swirling her skirt with unconscious grace. "I just have to get changed.   
Then I'll leave a nice long message before she gets home."   
Akane was worried. "Ranma, just turn into a guy and call her now.   
Get it over with."   
Ranko looked at her in shock. "I can't do *that!*"   
The room stared at her dumbly.   
"You can't?" Nabiki asked.   
Ranko flounced, pointing out the obvious. "Well, of *course* I   
can't. This is a *beautiful* dress. Do you think I want to spoil it?"   
The room facefaulted, Ranko vanished upstairs. 

Dr. Tofu examined Ranma as the latter lay obediently on his futon.   
After a thorough check he packed away his instruments and turned to the   
assembled family. "Well, he shows some signs of depression. And his aura   
has grown considerably, but aside from that physically he seems no   
different than yesterday. He may even be healthier."   
"Could his mind have been affected somehow?" Nabiki delved, knowing   
that *something* was up and desirous to get to the bottom of it.   
Dr. Tofu sat back on his heels. "Ranma, would you care to tell us   
what happened?"   
Ranma's expression said no.   
Genma grabbed his son by the shirt and hauled him off the mat,   
shouting inches from his face. "Ranma! What is the matter with you!"   
Ranma whispered something.   
"What was that?" Genma put his ear closer.   
"I said Fierce Tiger Ball Attack!" Ranma shouted, cupping his hands   
under his father's chest. The explosion flung the elderly Saotome   
through the wall and out into the yard.   
Everyone stared in astonishment.   
Ranma came to his feet, but didn't look like he was going anywhere.   
Then the mirror hung conveniently on the wall flared into brilliant   
life. It caught his attention instantly.   
Belldandy's face appeared, but made no move to leave the frame.   
"Ranma, I'm so sorry. I know what my sister has done to you, and I know   
that it must feel awful. I am not permitted to go where you are, but I   
want you to know that you *can* get back to us. One of your friends is   
already on her way, but the time flux between universes may delay her.   
Take heart," she glowed at him. "It will turn out alright!"   
Her image faded.   
Ranma's change was almost magical. Where before he had been dark and   
weary, he now had a totally different character, energy coursing down   
his shoulders to his wrists. He gave off a white fighting aura oozing   
with confidence and vitality.   
"Ranma, what's going on with you, who *was* that?" Akane begged of   
him, frightened by his behavior.   
"It would appear to be related to his condition." Dr. Tofu surmised. 

"That," Ranma responded, feeling life flow back through him. "Was   
the goddess Belldandy."   
"That was a goddess? Since when do you hang out with goddesses,   
Ranma?" Nabiki was struggling to remain aloof.   
She was finding it surprisingly difficult.   
"If you mean Belldandy in particular I only met her in my *last*   
incarnation, but if you mean when did I start in general I'd have to say   
about a hundred and twenty lives ago." He replied seriously. "You meet a   
few of them living on the spirit plane."   
The group facefaulted.   
"Wait a minute, hold on a second, Saotome." Nabiki challenged. "What   
are you talking about? And what do you mean a hundred lives? Have you   
gone wacko?"   
He looked down at her. "If you like, yes." Then raised his hand to   
the sky. "Anything Goes School of Martial Arts Secret Technique; Now you   
see me, now you DON'T!"   
His voice faded away into nothing and so did he.   
Soun leaned against a startled Genma, who had just returned to the   
room. "Did you teach him that technique, Saotome?"   
"I didn't even know we *had* that technique, Tendo." 

***** 

The Sailor Scouts arrived on the scene to find a figure in an   
armored battle bikini already there, floating in the air and performing   
some obscure function.   
"Hold it, negatrash!" Sailor Moon shouted, working up into a combat   
mood. "We don't put up with sleaze like you messing with our friends."   
She was interrupted.   
"If you'd going to talk that's fine with me. But Ranma honey just   
got tossed into an alternate dimension and we only have a couple of   
minutes left to haul him out."   
Mars recognized the armored warrior. "Hey, you're..."   
Ukyo nodded. "Yup, Ukyo Kuonji, Blue Iczelion. I figure we're all on   
the same side here. I'd love to chat but I have experience in alternate   
universe fighting. I'm going after him."   
She faded from sight. 

***** 

His mother's place had been easy enough to find. There were only   
three or four spots where it usually was, and after confirming through   
the birth registry that she was in fact his mother he appeared at the   
door.   
Nodoka answered a ring at her door and saw a nice young man standing   
on the doorstep. "Hello, may I help you?"   
Again, obvious she didn't know him, which was actually good this   
time.   
He bowed. "Yes, mother. My name is Ranma Saotome."   
She remained perfectly still for a moment, and he began to fear that   
he'd overplayed his hand. Then she exploded out from the gate and swept   
him up in a mighty hug.   
"Ranma! Is it really you?" She was crying into his shoulder, then   
looked all around. "But where is Genma? Ranma, has anything happened to   
him?"   
These first hugs were always so nice. He returned it with vigor.   
"Pops is fine, mom. Don't worry. He's off checking in on some friends of   
his, so I came on alone."   
He was inside without even consciously registering crossing the   
door. His pack (which he'd acquired after everyone had left the room)   
was whisked away and deposited in his old room. Then it was back to   
being hugged in the living room before he even knew what'd happened.   
And he'd thought the Chestnut Fist was fast! 

Next morning Ranma phased into existence, dropping the invisibility   
technique at the gates of Furinkan High School. Tatewaki Kuno was there. 

"Fiend! What have you done to Akane Tendo and the pig-tailed one?"   
Kuno cried, leveling his wooden sword at Ranma.   
Kuno was easy to read.   
Ranma struck a dramatic pose. "Alas! But the beauty of the great   
Akane Tendo wanes but for my presence! Forasmuch as the frost of winter   
doth spread and curl, causing tender young things to sleep within their   
vines, so do yearnings for myself cause her heart to wither and pine."   
He adopted a tragic gesture. "For it is truth that I have withdrawn   
myself from beyond the solace of her ancestral halls! Yea, even for   
reasons of tender love, which doth fly in the face of adversity and ill   
speaking, have I done that which was grievous to my heart! Oh, tender   
Fate, whose cruel claws do *tear* us away from those we love for reasons   
of our loving. It must be that I, and Akane Tendo, be at last apart   
until such time as the fragrant blossoms of youthful longing do spring   
again betwixt us!"   
Kuno had lowered his sword, lips forming a soundless "Whoa."   
Ranma tossed an off-handed wave off his shoulder. "And Ranko and I   
are shacking up."   
Kuno's eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.   
There was *such* liberty in being in a reality he didn't care about!   
Ranma was leaving this one as quickly as he found the means to, and he'd   
had a bad start to begin with, so he was playing this one just for fun.   
Not worrying in the slightest about how to get it right.   
Ranma whistled as he walked past the body and into the school. 

Nabiki caught Ranma at lunch. "Say, Saotome, heard about your fight   
with Kuno. Gossip is that you beat him senseless without laying a finger   
on him. That must have been some stuff. People swear that you were just   
spouting poetry."   
Ranma finished his milk and replaced the container. "Everybody has a   
kind of stress that will break them like glass, Nabiki. You ought to   
know that."   
Her eyes hardened dangerously. "I hope you aren't planning to pull   
anything like that on *me* Saotome."   
He grinned. "Are you afraid I can?"   
Nabiki wasn't used to being on a defensive stance. But so far Ranma   
had kept her there. She couldn't afford to show weakness. "Of course   
not, Saotome. I just don't want you trying."   
"Ah, I see. You are afraid."   
"You know I'm not. I don't break that easily Saotome."   
He wiped his lips with a napkin. "You must be right."   
He said it so casually, so flippantly, that Nabiki was actually   
frightened for a second. But this was *Ranma* here, and nobody learns   
how to escape her clutches that easily. In fact she saw room for an   
opportunity.   
"Well that brings up an interesting point, Saotome. I came over here   
to discuss your disappearance from our house last night. Let's say that   
you try this technique on me. When you fail I shall graciously accept   
your return to the dojo. But if by some miracle you succeed then I will   
cancel half your outstanding debts to me."   
He didn't at first respond, instead packing his lunch back into its   
box. Then he'd taken her by the waist and the pair of them were standing   
on the lunchroom table.   
Ranma held Nabiki closely, one hand in the small of her back, his   
chest leaning into her, forcing her to bend. She was about to mouth   
something awful when his other hand cupped her chin and brought her lips   
to his, drinking in a kiss that was luxurious and fine, as wonderful as   
it was unexpected.   
Nabiki's wits nearly froze, but she was made of stern stuff.   
However Ranma wasn't *nearly* finished.   
The students around them had been slow to react, after all this was   
Nabiki. Still they noticed, and waves of stunned amazement swept over   
the room.   
After a kiss both deep and long Ranma swept a cape and a top hat out   
of nowhere, clutching a rose in his teeth he swirled around her in a   
flowing tapestry of black, using the motion to disguise and provide   
modesty as he performed a chestnut changing of clothes.   
After the motion Nabiki stood revealed in a stunning evening gown,   
with Ranma beside her in a tuxedo. He pressed the rose into her hands,   
and music began to play in the background, stifling rumbles of amazement   
from the crowd.   
He then proceeded to dance a slinky tango with her across the   
tables.   
He lifted her, she draped herself, he spun her, she twirled. He   
leapt across the tables with her with their bodies never more than an   
inch apart. In short he made her feel like the magnificent center of a   
hot and steamy universe.   
She wilted, he carried her through the moves anyway, making her seem   
twice as graceful as before.   
At the end of it, sweaty and breathless, flushed, excited and fully   
overcome by the strange and wonderful sensations awash within her,   
Nabiki was returned to her seat. Ranma delivered a final kiss, then   
dropped her school uniform in her lap.   
"You lose, Nabiki."   
And for the life of her she couldn't tell him she hadn't. 

Making peace with Ukyo and Akane after such a public display with   
Nabiki had been hard, but possible. Neither were inclined to beat up the   
Tendo sister, and it did seem halfway reasonable when he explained about   
the bet.   
Of course both were outraged at any public displays of affection   
that did not involve them, but both were not only satisfied but stunned   
when he agreed to take them each on their own date in recompense.   
Shampoo arrived in the middle of this discussion and got included in   
the date proposal. The condition was established that anyone interfering   
in another girl's date would lose her own.   
So they all just began scheming about how to catch him on their own. 

Nabiki met Ranma at the outer gates at the close of school. Only the   
most observant could tell that she was still wavering and a little   
unsteady on her feet. "Hold it right there, Saotome."   
He stopped.   
Nabiki's mask of control was excellent, but it *was* a mask, and he   
could tell it for such. She took one step forward. "Same stakes,   
Saotome." She called, holding herself steady with a tree branch. "I'm   
ready for you this time. I win and you come back with me to the dojo,   
you win and I cancel your remaining debt."   
Students formed an amphitheater around them. Ranma's books slid to   
the pavement, but he made no other move.   
Nabiki wished she knew why she was doing this. She *knew* she wanted   
him back at the dojo, and it was for Akane's sake, right? She knew that   
her sister didn't have a chance without that advantage. But Nabiki's   
face still felt the kisses he'd delivered to it at lunchtime, and a   
small, wry part of her suggested that maybe she wasn't thinking too   
clearly.   
Whatever, she had to do this for the sake of the dojo. Nabiki took   
an unsteady step forward. "What's the matter, Saotome? Afraid I'll win?   
Tell you what, we'll raise the stakes. In addition to our last bet if I   
win you'll agree to call off the dates with all fiances except Akane. If   
you win... if you win then I'll speak to my father and we'll add me to   
the list." She gulped.   
Had she said *that?*   
Now what on earth had made her say *that?* She'd been willing to   
call off blackmail for a week. Or had she? Why wasn't she able to think   
straight?   
Ranma picked up his books and began to walk away.   
"Wait!" She cried, getting desperate. "We'll call off the blackmail.   
C'mon, Ranma! Since when have I not at least given you a chance to   
*try?*"   
Ranma paused, dropping his books. Suddenly he swirled and was back   
in tuxedo and cape, slinking towards her. Nabiki's knees grew weak.   
All around them rose the strains of one of the slinkiest tangos ever   
written, "Hernando's Hideaway" from The Pajama Game.   
Ranma grabbed Nabiki and began to sing.   
**   
"I know,   
a small, secluded place.   
A place,   
where no, one knows your face.   
A glass,   
of wine, a fast embrace..." 

(there are tricks known by the master dancer that serve only to make his   
partner seem beautiful, and Ranma knew them all. Nabiki did yoga, which   
made her limber, but she'd never danced before in her life. Which didn't   
matter one iota as Ranma led her through by subtle pressure and   
invisible guidance, leading her along as if she knew the dance as well   
as he) 

"It's called,   
Hernando's Hideaway!   
Olay! 

All,   
you see, are silhouettes.   
And all,   
you hear, are castanets.   
And no,   
one cares, how late it gets. 

Not at,   
Hernando's Hideaway!   
Olay! 

At the Golden Finger Bowl or anywhere you go!   
You'll meet your uncle Max and everyone you know!   
But it you go to the place that I am thinking of!   
Then you'll be free,   
to dream of me,   
and talk of love! 

Just knock,   
three times, and whisper low.   
That you,   
and I, were sent by Joe..." 

(he leaned into her, their bodies barely separated at all, as if the two   
of them were a single sinuous panther stalking through mists of a   
jungle) 

"Then strike,   
a match, and you will know. 

You're in,   
Hernando's Hideaway!   
Olay!" 

**   
Somehow during the dance she had changed back into the evening gown,   
but even she could not say where, or when.   
He finished the song and held her draped over him, then allowed her   
to slide off his chest and onto her knees as the last strains faded   
away.   
In all it was the single most sensual moment she'd ever had.   
And not being used to sensual moments it overcame her entirely.   
Nabiki came to lying on a futon in her home, her school uniform crumpled   
in a pile by her side, still wearing the evening gown Ranma had dressed   
her in. Akane was kneeling beside her.   
"Thanks for trying, Nabiki."   
Nabiki watched Kasumi come in with a bowl of soup. "Save it, Akane.   
All I did was make the situation worse." 

To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

Well, this one got away with me a bit there! Yes, I know, I didn't   
get to resolve alot of the issues I brought up in this. Who cares? If I   
hadn't made it clear before that I was writing this for fun it should be   
obvious now.   
Relax, Part Five should have a good number of explanations and clear   
up a bunch of stuff that many of you have been asking about.   
So chew your fingernails until then. 


	5. 5

jared@netuser.com> 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Five   
A Romantic Interlude 

by Jared Ornstead 

A serious Disclaimer   
Ranma 1/2 and its associated characters created by Rumiko Takahashi.   
Sailor Moon and its associated characters created by Naoko Takeuchi.   
AMG, Iczelion and all other characters belong to their copyright owners.   
No infringement intended. 

************************************************   
Ranma finished reading and replaced the letters back in the box   
where he'd found them, in the order he'd found them, without so much as   
leaving a discernible mark in the dust on the lid.   
He hated to admit it, but he'd become quite an accomplished thief   
through his many lives. Not stealing things like jewelry or watches,   
just finding those secret caches where people hid journals and letters,   
stuff he needed to know if he was to act like himself.   
He'd just finished reading all the letters Gemna had sent his mother   
while on their training mission. It was, as far as he could tell, pretty   
close to basic. He'd had to read between the lines alot, Genma was never   
an honest soul no matter where he'd met him, but it had all come out   
pretty close to what he remembered from his very first life.   
Weird.   
Well, with those facts straight he headed off to the Tendo dojo.   
With the intention of maybe sifting through Nabiki's files, which were   
guaranteed to be more accurate, and probably as complete.   
He wasn't halfway there before he found Ukyo wandering the streets   
looking dazed and alone. He dropped down beside her in concern.   
"Hey, Ucchan. What's up?"   
She looked at him, sniffed, and began to bawl. "Oh, Ran-chan!" She   
grabbed his lapels and hung on.   
Tenderness was needed. He encircled her in his arms, quietly praying   
that none of his other fiances happened along just then.   
"Hey, Ucchan, don't be so upset. What's wrong?"   
She looked him in the eyes, tears dripping down her cheeks. She   
turned her head away from him and whispered. "Ran-chan, maybe... Maybe   
you'd better marry someone else."   
He looked at her in shock. "What are you *talking* about? What's up,   
Ucchan, you're scaring me. Was it something I've done? Tell me, anything   
I've done I'll fix. Just let me know what's the matter."   
She shook her head. "No, Ran-chan..." she was going to continue but   
tears choked off her voice. She whispered something.   
Ranma held himself stock still. It had sounded like she had just   
told him that she was dying. He asked her, she confirmed this, saying   
that she'd just come from the hospital where results from her mammograms   
had come in. She was going to die. Breast cancer was already too   
advanced for the doctors to deal with.   
Whimsy and carelessness left Ranma like water from a broken jug. He   
swept her up in his arms.   
"Okay, Ucchan. Let's go see my mother." 

Nodoka sat stunned, staring at the two youngsters kneeling across   
the table from her. She still couldn't believe what they had told her.   
"My son has how many fiances?"   
"We know of about four or five that his father arranged for him."   
Ukyo reported. "There are some others that want him without that   
arrangement, though I think if they wised up and bribed Genma with some   
food he would make the engagements official without even blinking."   
Nodoka couldn't help but wince at the accuracy of that statement.   
That was how she remembered getting the old rascal to marry *her*.   
Ranma went on to the meat of the topic. "And so mother, I've been   
juggling fiances for months now. And I must be honest with you. I came   
here in part to avoid having pops know where I was. He likes to make   
things worse."   
"Yeah, I know about a dozen times when Genma's sold secrets about   
Ranma's abilities to his enemies. He's just about got Ran-chan killed a   
few times doing it."   
Nodoka's gaze firmed and her mind stopped reeling. "So your father   
has been deliberately casual of your life?"   
Ranma nodded. "When Happosai showed up the first thing pops pulled   
to try and get his fat out of the fire was to offer to sign over his   
parental rights to me to the old freak."   
"I can see there are some things I'm going to have to discuss with   
him." Nodoka returned, beginning to see just how much Genma had been   
getting away with on this training mission.   
"He is staying at the Tendo dojo, but it would be useless for you to   
go there. Pops can hide himself in less than a second to avoid facing   
you."   
"And why would he want to do that?" Nodoka was genuinely puzzled.   
Ranma sighed. "Believe me mom, when it comes to saving his own hide   
pops is psychic."   
Nodoka nodded. "I see. Son, why do you choose to tell me this? You   
know how glad I am to have you home, but why should you tell me these   
things now?"   
Ucchan nervously slid her hand into Ranma's.   
"Because mom, I haven't *got* much time. Ucchan just got back from   
the doctor, and they said that she's dying. She's going to have a few   
healthy months, and, well, I want to spend the time with her. I know   
*alot* of martial art techniques. I can even heal my own injuries, well,   
sorta. But one thing I *can't* do is make Ucchan better."   
His eyes twinkled. "Or can I?" He asked rhetorically. "Mom, you're   
going to think this is a strange question, but do you know anything of a   
group called the Sailor Scouts?"   
Nodoka blinked. That *was* a strange question. "No, dear. Are they a   
rock band or something?"   
Ranma deflated. "No, mom. Forget it." 

Blue Iczelion appeared out of a dimensional warp.   
"Iczel," Ukyo addressed her armor's AI. "This looks just like home." 

"Agreed, Ukyo. Scanning for Ranma in these crowds is going to be   
difficult."   
She looked in concern at the distortion in the air behind her. "How   
long have we got?"   
"Less than an hour. The distortion of time is working in our favor,   
but not by a great margin, Ukyo. Fortunately our search radius is   
small."   
"Well, let's start looking for Ranma." 

They left his mother deep in thought, the two teenagers wandered for   
a little. It began to rain slightly and found themselves at the steps to   
the Tendo dojo.   
"We might as well tell them." Ukyo offered, shrugging. "They ought   
to at least know that we might be getting your mother's blessing, and   
why."   
Ranko agreed. They went in.   
Kasumi welcomed them inside happily. Nabiki was down watching TV,   
and Soun and Genma were playing their inevitable game. Akane was   
surrounded by a huge mound of magazines and stuff.   
Ranko caught sight of the pile of manga around Akane. With a   
half-terrified look usually reserved for drowning victims she dove   
belly-flat on the table and grabbed one of the Sailor-V comics. Quickly   
she was shoving it in Nabiki's face.   
"Nabiki, quick! Ya *gotta* tell me! Are the Sailor Scouts real? Do   
you read about them in the paper, do they show them on TV?"   
Nabiki parted the comic so she could see Ranko beyond it. "Of   
*course* they're real. What planet have you been living on?"   
Ranko dropped the magazine, vitality growing within her. "That   
doesn't matter now." She answered seriously.   
Nabiki and Ukyo viewed her with equal concern, the others with mere   
puzzlement.   
Ranko reached... somewhere, and was soon glowing with triumph.   
"Yes!!!" She screamed, holding an odd looking pen aloft. "It made the   
journey with me!"   
By now everyone was afraid, and worried. Kasumi paused in the door,   
a tray forgotten in her hands. Ranko paused to look around herself.   
"Um, excuse me." She vanished in a trail of dust, footsteps fading   
upstairs.   
Ranko burst into Kasumi's room (the last place she would be   
expected, or looked for) and held the pen high, hope bursting within   
her. Reaching out with a prayer in her heart she cried. "Earth Power   
Make-Up!"   
Instantly she was at the center of a powerful energy storm, strange   
lights at work around her. Ranko spun in the air, an empty silhouette of   
energy, blue fire burning across her form. Lightning coursed up her   
empty chest, forming the white Sailor uniform. Soon she was completely   
transformed and landing to pose on the floor.   
"YES!!!" Earth wept, having thrust her fist in the air to punctuate   
her joy.   
Downstairs, the others looked at one another in confusion.   
Earth danced out onto the roof, capering with joy. "I am the sailor   
suited warrior of love and justice, Sailor Earth! Oh, how *good* it   
feels to be back in motion! This thing hasn't beaten me yet!"   
Acting on knowledge she didn't know she had, she called a staff into   
existence. A thin silver rod capped with an elaborate end. It was the   
way of the Sailor Scouts to spontaneously remember old powers in times   
of stress or great emotion. Raising her staff high, Earth cried.   
"Scout Power Assemble! I call upon Sailor Mercury!"   
The new Sailor Scout appeared on the roof, fully in costume and very   
confused. "What just happened to me?" Mercury asked. She saw Sailor   
Earth and was unable to identify her. "Who are you? Where is Sailor   
Moon?"   
Earth reassured her. "I am Sailor Earth, Sailor Moon is still   
probably at the video game arcade, and what just happened was that I   
used my power to bring you here. Mercury, can you tell me if any Scouts   
are able to heal cancer?"   
"Sure." Mercury advised her, tackling the problem casually. "Sailor   
Saturn should be able to just fine. Can you bring her here?"   
"Uh, actually I'd better get advice on that. Scout Power Assemble!   
Sailor Pluto!"   
Sailor Pluto appeared on the roof.   
"You'd better have a good explanation for this, Earth."   
The Tendo household had emerged from the house and was cowering back   
against the building.   
"Actually, Pluto, I do. I represent a huge distortion in the   
temporal fabric. I would like to be sent home immediately. Except, of   
course, that I have an obligation to a certain girl here. She is dying   
of breast cancer and I want her healed. Would there be a problem if I   
were to call Sailor Saturn?"   
Mercury was taking readings. "I'm afraid, Sailor Earth, that my   
computer detects only a slight distortion around you."   
Earth turned on her with the jerky slowness of a broken machine.   
"Err, what was that?"   
"You're a dimensional traveler, right?" Earth conceded this. "Well,   
then you can relax. Whatever happened to you, you're home now. According   
to my computer, this is the dimension that you started from."   
Confidence and her aura of control fell from Earth like a bad coat   
of paint. "But... How long was I gone?"   
"Less than an hour, I would say."   
Earth gathered herself. "No, Mercury. I may have *started* from   
here, but this isn't home. Look at these people," she waved to the crowd   
below her. "Some of these people knew me once. But they're terrified of   
me, and with good reason. I've spend close to three hundred lives   
changing from what these people remember as me into something completely   
different. I'm older than *any* of them. I've fought dragons and ogres   
and spirits, lived on the spirit plane..." Her voice broke. "Even been   
married to a vampire. Oh, my wonderful vampire, Rae my Beloved!"   
Her eyes went heavenward and she began to cry.   
"Married to a vampire!" Akane asked incredulously. "How on earth   
could you be married to a *vampire!* Who *are* you anyway?"   
Earth spared the girl a grin. "It wasn't so bad. Sure you have to   
deal with the occasional unprovoked assault, and remember not to put   
garlic on the pizza. But in all it was alot better than marriage to,   
say, a certain uncute tomboy." Her expression grew distant and happy.   
"Rae was beautiful. She was gorgeous and kind. Then I met her in a life   
when she wasn't a vampire."   
She wiped a tear from her eye. "Heaven could not be so sweet. In   
fact it wasn't."   
Mercury was considering. "If you really lived that long then your   
experience could be very valuable to us. You *are* still a Sailor   
Scout."   
Earth shook her head. "Only by adoption. Pluto, a different Pluto,   
offered to change my past to include me in the Silver Millennium.   
Circumstances were extreme, but she did it. Then I got in a fight with   
one of the negaverse generals. I killed Jadeite before any of the other   
Sailors could arrive to help. I *know* Queen Beryl. That's enough for   
her to raise the stakes considerably. I have to go back to help my   
friends. They could all die without me."   
Pluto crossed her arms. "Beryl died long ago in this world. Are you   
sure you want to go back to a fight *we* won years ago?"   
Earth stilled her tears. "Perhaps, but that's my decision, isn't it?   
Anyway, I have to go. The Pluto there gave Saturn into my keeping,   
Uranus and Neptune aren't awake yet."   
Pluto blanched. "You'd *better* go back, alright! Or that world   
won't last. Call our Saturn, I'll explain things to her and we can heal   
this friend of yours."   
Earth nodded, raising her staff again. A diminutive Saturn appeared   
beside them, young and scared. Pluto went to comfort her.   
Earth hopped down onto the lawn, confronting the curious household   
with a well concieved charade.   
"Hello! I am the sailor suited warrior of love and justice, Sailor   
Earth! Look, I owe a favor to a certain Ranma Saotome. And he asked me   
to heal one of you of a fatal disease. Which of you is Ukyo?"   
Ukyo indicated herself with a timid hand.   
"Okay, there's nothing to worry about, darling. There's no danger   
and you won't feel a thing. Isn't that right, Pluto?"   
The rest of the Scouts jumped down off the roof. "That's right."   
Pluto affirmed. "It's perfectly safe and 100% certain. You have nothing   
to be worried about. Go ahead, Saturn. You can heal her."   
A very timid Saturn nodded and began her ministrations.   
While watching closely, Earth leaned in close to Mercury. "Why is   
she so shy? Saturn looks scared to death."   
Mercury responded in low tones. "She's been beaten alot by kids at   
her school, who think her healing abilities make her a freak. She's had   
a rough life."   
Earth nodded, assimilating the information.   
Saturn completed her healing and tumbled, exhausted, into Pluto's   
arms. Pluto looked up at Earth. "You can send us home now."   
Sailor Earth raised her staff. "Scout Power Return!" 

Iczelion was getting frustrated. Quartering the city had been   
useless. Ran-chan just had too erratic and variable an energy signature   
to track effectively. And they were running out of time.   
She spotted a school with some high school students still in the   
yard. Iczelion dropped from the sky into the middle of a game.   
"You!" She commanded, pointing to one of the players. "Where is   
Ranma Saotome?"   
The student gibbered.   
"Beam Spatula!" A glowing combat spatula of blue radiance formed in   
her hand. Ordinarily Ukyo wouldn't threaten, but she was on the verge of   
not finding Ranma at all.   
One of the students piped up. "Why don't you look for him at the   
Tendo dojo?"   
Her eyes grabbed him. "And where is that?" 

Ranma was resting on the roof of the dojo when he heard Cologne   
call. "I don't care about what you *think* may be wrong with him, I want   
to see my son-in-law. Son-in-law!." She called.   
"Yes, great grandmother, what is it?" He leapt up on the summit,   
allowing him to see down where Genma and Soun had been trying to keep   
Cologne out of the house, she was burdened down with takeout boxes or   
she probably would have knocked the two cold and saved the time of   
talking.   
Her eyes softened. "Ah, son-in-law. I've brought you some ramen to   
help you feel better. Are you quite over what happened? Would you like   
to talk?"   
He hopped down beside her. "Thank you, great grandmother. I would   
love to. But these bozos probably haven't told you that I won't be   
staying here much longer."   
Her eyes narrowed. "No, they left that part out. Would you care to   
come to the cafe then? We'll always have room for you, and we can chat   
on our way there."   
Soun thrust himself between the pair of them. "Son! I don't know   
what it is we've done to offend you so. But PLEASE stay here and live   
with us. You can have your very own room. We'll even get the Master to   
teach you more of his secret techniques. What do you say, son?"   
Genma caught sight of Shampoo entering the gate. "Ranma. I didn't   
want to have to do this. But you BREAK YOUR FATHER'S HEART! For the good   
of the Saotome school I have to make you realize the error of your ways!   
Aaaaahhhhh!!"   
He splashed Shampoo with the ever-present water bucket and began   
waving her cat form in Ranma's face. Soun skittered back out of the   
danger zone, Cologne backed out of immediate range, even Shampoo in her   
cat form flinched.   
Ranma reached out and gathered the white and purple feline into his   
arms, an easy motion that spoke of long experience. Idly, he began to   
scratch behind her ears. "Yeah, so what is this punishment you were   
talking about?"   
The group facefaulted.   
Kasumi appeared in the doorway. "Dinner's ready! Why, Ranma, I   
thought you were afraid of cats."   
He smiled, continuing to pet Shampoo. "I kinda got over it, Kasumi." 

Cologne laughed. "That's my son in law. I can't wait to hear how he   
did it. Shall we go in?"   
Ranma nodded respectfully to her, but paused to gather Shampoo's   
discarded clothing before entering. They sat at the table and both   
younger Tendo girls nearly jumped out of their skins in fright at the   
sight of Ranma holding a cat.   
"Whoa, Ranma. How are you doing *that*? You ought to be out running   
cross-country by now."   
Ranma smiled at Nabiki, taking his seat, still petting Shampoo all   
the while. Her purring was getting loud enough to numb his hand. He   
explained while Cologne and Kasumi quickly set the table with a double   
meal.   
"The whole thing kinda started when I got told by somebody that the   
Cat Fist was more a demonic possession than a martial arts maneuver. So   
I got the Xi Fang shiatsu technique to dull the memories and a few   
hundred exorcisms to clean me out. Wasn't all that hard."   
"A few *hundred* exorcisms?" Nabiki stressed, disbelievingly. "And   
who'd you get to do the Xi Fang?" She asked. "Present company isn't   
exactly trustworthy."   
"Yes, child, I'm curious too. I don't remember performing it, and   
Shampoo would have told me. There really aren't all that many people who   
know the pressure points. Whom did you find?"   
"Great grandmother, you don't *remember* doing it, but you did it.   
Thank you."   
Cologne's eyes narrowed. "Well, this is a subject I would like to   
hear more on later, if you don't mind."   
He nodded his acquiescence.   
Akane was on the verge of tears. Why was Ranma being so nice to   
Cologne all of a sudden? And Shampoo? She'd tried so hard to be nice the   
other night and he'd not even let her get close to him. And he'd not   
even *looked* at her since then.   
Akane felt ashamed to admit it, but she liked the way he'd always   
been looking at her, sneaking glances out of the corner of his eye or   
when he thought she wasn't looking. But since that night when they'd all   
gone out to find him crying he'd not paid any attention to her! It was   
as if he didn't even notice she was alive!   
She stared at the cat in him arms with burning jealousy, then caught   
her sister doing the same thing. Nabiki? Akane'd felt sure that dance at   
school with Ranma had all been a bet, a ploy on her sister's part to get   
Ranma to come back to her. So why was Nabiki getting jealous of Shampoo   
all of a sudden?   
Kasumi brought in Ukyo from where she'd been resting.   
"Hey, Ran-chan." Ukyo sat next to Ranma, more than a little   
teary-eyed. "I want to thank you for what you did for me. Kasumi filled   
me in on who those girls were. I gotta tell ya, getting healed by   
superheroes wasn't exactly something I expected. Thank you, Ran-chan."   
She began to work his shoulders.   
Cologne almost put forth her staff to prevent the okanomiyaki chef,   
but Ranma's raised hand prevented her.   
Ukyo noticed the movement, her grin was triumphant. "Yeah. Didn't   
you hear? Ran-chan's going to *marry* me!" She leaned into his back and   
pressed her cheek up against him.   
The room exploded around them. 

Blue Iczelion had identified the residence.   
"Iczel, is this the place?"   
"Yes, Ukyo." Her armor spoke to her. An overlay appeared on the   
building, with one blinking figure on it, surrounded by static forms.   
"Here he is."   
But Ucchan also saw another figure approaching the building. One she   
didn't need her computer to identify.   
"That's Kuno, the one with the blood feud against Ranma."   
"Confirmed, Ukyo. Though it might be an alternate."   
"Yeah, but either way he doesn't deserve the kid gloves." She   
sideslipped to a higher altitude and better angle.   
"Iczelion Gravity!"   
A huge beam of energy shot forward from her chest, carving a trench   
forty yards deep and a thousand yards long, debris making a cloud in the   
air. Miraculously the kendoist avoided incineration, but ran shrieking   
away from the Iczelion.   
"Ukyo, the blast will have alerted those keeping Ranma." The Iczel   
warned.   
"Then we don't give them time to react." She pivoted mid-air and   
brought her gauntlet blasters to bear.   
Twin blasts carved off the walls and roof of the Tendo living room. 

Whether it was they were stunned from the announcement, or simply   
that they were used to super powered beings coming after Ranma, no one   
moved in the room as it was incinerated and fell apart around them.   
Though somehow one of the blasts had caused a hot water explosion.   
Female Shampoo fell naked into Ranma's lap.   
The armored figure to assault their home dropped through the now   
open roof, grabbing Ranma by the collar.   
"Hold it right there, Sugar." Ucchan hefted her spatula against the   
foe. "NO ONE is taking my Ran-chan away from me."   
The smoke cleared, revealing two Ukyos. One with spatula and the   
other in a high powered battle bikini. Both froze in astonishment.   
Blue Iczelion recovered first. "Sorry honey, but this one is *my*   
Ran-chan."   
Spatula Ukyo bit back tears. "YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM! After ten years he   
*finally* tells me he loves me! You *can't* take him away!"   
Blue Iczelion paused, biting her lip. "You and I are alot alike, it   
appears. Just this morning he proposed to me. I'd almost given up hope." 

Cologne's eyes were traveling between the Ukyos. "Perhaps if one of   
you explained." She offered, wondering how to fit her granddaughter into   
this.   
"There's no TIME!" Blue Iczelion screamed. "The portal to our   
universe is just open for a few seconds more! I can't wait for this!"   
She began to lift off, still holding Ranma.   
"Son-in-law!" Cologne plead, drawing his attention back to those   
present. "Where are you going?"   
Iczelion released her hold, dropping Ranma to the floor. He then   
knelt and hugged the Amazon. "Dear, great grandmother," he addressed   
her. "I am going home."   
Ukyo and a now-dressed Shampoo struck the same pose, looking more   
like sisters than they would ever believe. "Sorry Sugar." Ukyo   
corrected. "But you aren't going *anywhere* without me."   
"Where you go, Shampoo go." The Amazon affirmed.   
Ranma kissed them both, his cheeks were wet. "My beloved friends.   
You are already there, else I could *never* leave you."   
Ranma leapt into the air and was caught by Blue Iczelion. The two of   
them disappeared in a streak of light.   
"Excuse me." A Belldandy stepped out of the unbroken mirror. "I have   
been asked by my counterpart in another world to clean up any mess that   
may have been caused in retrieving a friend of hers. I'll just be a   
moment."   
The goddess crossed her arms and energy blazed from a sign on her   
forehead. "Retrace and spin..."   
A ball of energy began to glow before her. Assorted bits of garbage   
that had once been home parts lifted from the detritus that was now the   
Tendo home. Cracks sealed and walls reassembled themselves, the roof   
regrew over their heads. Even the dojo, miraculously unscarred by this   
event, had temporary patches made whole and the marks of age and ill   
maintenance erased.   
The end result was a compound unblemished and fine, in better   
condition than since the height of it's prosperity, before the death of   
Mrs. Tendo. The ghastly trench outside was even closed.   
"Well, that's what I was sent for. Thank you very much for helping   
out my friend." Belldandy beamed, moving back toward the mirror.   
Cologne turned to the goddess without wasting time. "Honored one, if   
I could have a word with you..." 

***** 

Blue Iczelion reappeared with Ranma in tow, the Sailor Scouts were   
still on scene, though they looked monstrously bored.   
"'Bout time you guys got back."   
Mars attached herself to Ranma and would not let go. Some reporter   
snapped a photograph.   
"Hey!" Venus objected, leaping over to the man and snatching his   
camera, extracting the film. "Sorry, but we can't allow you to print   
this."   
The reporter was devastated. "But?" He could see several million yen   
fading out of his grasp.   
"Sorry buddy, too much that's bad could happen."   
"Let's get *out* of here." Ukyo called. The Scouts nodded and all   
took off in a rush, Mars and Ukyo carrying Ranma between them as if he   
was injured or something.   
In truth, neither were willing to let him go.   
They stopped in a safe location and dropped their costumes.   
"What was all that about, how long were we gone?" Ukyo asked.   
"You disappeared and stayed gone most of the day." Lita replied.   
"We were all very worried," Amy added. "Especially after what you'd   
told us about the gate being open for only a few minutes. But I scanned   
for the portal and it appeared to be constant, so we hung around." She   
looked up from her screen. "It's gone now, though."   
"Things started to get *real* nasty when the police and the   
reporters showed up." Serena singsonged. "It was like, majorly cool at   
first, all these people taking our pictures like we were movie stars or   
models. But then they just kept getting more and more annoying."   
"I'll be surprised if we don't make every news agency in the   
country." Mina sorrowed. "We were there for hours guarding the site to   
keep it open for you."   
Luna and Artemis appeared around one of the temple buildings,   
looking as if they had been waiting for some time. Both looked as if   
they had something urgent they wanted to discuss.   
Ranma shook off some of the travel fatigue that had gripped him.   
"Serena, your cat would like to speak with you privately, it seems.   
Shall Ukyo and I excuse ourselves while you talk?"   
"Hey, how did you know we can talk?" Artemis asked.   
Ranma was about to reply but Mina beat him to it. "It's okay,   
Artemis. They know we're Sailor Scouts."   
Both cats jumped up. "Then we'd best waste no time." Luna cautioned.   
"Central has informed us that Sailor Earth has dropped off their scopes.   
She's been gone for hours. We'll have to go and rescue her!"   
"Old news, Luna." Serena moaned. "We caught *that* info this   
afternoon, just after Jadeite was killed."   
"Sailor Earth is safe." Ukyo assured the two cats. "That's what this   
whole thing was about. She got flung into another dimension and I had to   
spend the day hauling her back out. The Scouts were a great help."   
"Though I am worried about all those reporters." Amy conceded. "They   
got *alot* of pictures. Won't they be able to identify us?"   
"No, they won't." Luna stated. "The Sailor Scout transformation   
includes several protections against it. Your only danger is to be   
caught with someone who can identify you. Because they won't be   
protected."   
"So what does this mean about Sailor Earth?" Ranma questioned   
seriously. "In that first fight she didn't *have* the Sailor Scout   
protections. Could she be identified?"   
Luna frowned. "It's possible. Say, how do you know so much about   
us?"   
The girls sweated.   
Ranma shrugged. "I'm Ranko's closest confident. We've been together   
for a long time now. She's like a sister. I tell her everything. She   
doesn't have a secret from me."   
The girls relaxed.   
Luna frowned. "I'm really not very comfortable with that wagging   
tongue of hers. A true Scout is not supposed to tell *anyone*. It shows   
far too casual an attitude about the danger we're in."   
Ranma frowned. "You're right. I'll tell her."   
"Still, you don't seem like a *bad* sort." Artemis comforted, trying   
to take some of the sting out of Luna's words. "I'm sure you'll be a   
great help to us."   
Ranma smiled. "I would like very much to be so."   
Amy looked at her watch. "My goodness! Look at the time. I have to   
be going to do my homework! Oh, if I don't hurry I'll not be ready for   
that test tomorrow!"   
There was a general consensus, though less fervent.   
"I'll drop Ranma home." Ukyo and Rae chorused.   
Ranma looked back and forth between them. "Then I'll be well   
escorted." He supplied. 

Belldandy met them at the mansion. "Could we have a private talk,   
Ranma?"   
Ranma nodded, swiftly introducing them. "Ucchan, Rae, this is the   
goddess Belldandy."   
The two girls were beyond surprise and greeted the goddess warmly.   
They talked for a bit but it became clear that whatever Belldandy had to   
say was urgent. So they let her take Ranma aside.   
She sat next to him. "Ranma, I'm very pleased that your friends were   
able to help you out, but I'm afraid its urgent that we talk."   
Ranma was not so deranged as to ignore a goddess when she said   
something was urgent. His attention was instantly and totally hers.   
"You are going to have to explain things to your mother. She thinks   
that you and I are engaged."   
His face whitened. Suddenly he recalled that part about saying he'd   
bring the girls he'd wanted to marry to see his mother. With all the   
combat and troubles the other day he'd forgot.   
Then he recalled Kasumi.   
"That's right." Belldandy agreed. "Your mother and Kasumi are   
already planning on your wedding. I'm afraid this is past my control."   
Ranma digested this. Kasumi? She was nice, but...   
"Kasumi wants this?"   
The goddess indicated that this was most powerfully so. "And that's   
why I can't interfere. A person's desires are very important."   
Ranma's mind churned at warp speed. "Wow. Well, hurting Kasumi is   
out of the question. I'd say she was an angel but that would be   
understating it."   
A fog cleared from his mind.   
"Belldandy, can I ask you something? I love Kasumi like a sister,   
but it's not a brother's love she'll want, or need." He hung his head.   
"She deserves too much good to have a husband that doesn't care for her.   
She gives *so* much, and asks so little in return. I'd gladly go through   
with this, but I couldn't fake it. And it would be a crime of epic   
proportions to land her in an unhappy marriage."   
He raised pleading eyes to the goddess.   
"So what I'm asking is, if this is to turn out all right, I'm going   
to have to love her. Could you help me with that? I could, and would,   
try on my own, but it would take some time. Time I may not have. I'd   
rather die than disappoint her. If she truly wants this... Could you   
help me?"   
Belldandy smiled approvingly. "You're such a good person. You remind   
me of your father."   
Information!   
Ranma was on his knees grasping her hands. "You knew my father?   
PLEASE Bell, tell me what you remember about him?"   
Belldandy softened with memory. "He was a great man, with a truly 

noble heart. I got called to deliver him his wish, and so when he asked   
for the perfect girlfriend. I introduced him to your mother. His name   
was Keiichi Morasato, but because your grandfather had no male heirs he   
adopted Keiichi and allowed him to take over the family name."   
Ranma absorbed this. "Wow. So Genma wasn't my old man. I always   
*did* wonder how a guy like him could convince my mom to marry him."   
Belldandy grew stern. "That Genma is an evil man. He tried to trick   
your mother into marrying him by feeding her love potions. I put a stop   
to that so that Keiichi could get his wish, though I understand that in   
the world you hail from he did succeed."   
Ranma was growing concerned. "Are you saying this *isn't* my home   
world? What that other Mercury told me is true?"   
Belldandy softened. "Ranma, even though this is not your world of   
origin, it has certainly become home to you. As a goddess, I was fully   
briefed on your history before coming to grant your wish. You started in   
a world not far from this one. There you found a magic mirror that was   
intended to travel in time. However the mirror was broken, and you were   
catapulted into this world instead. It was here that you got the Destiny   
Ring and began rewriting our past.   
"All that you have done, your wishes and your memories, have   
occurred in this world. You rewrote our past and became an integral part   
of our universe. Our world can no longer continue without you. But all   
of that, though you grew much from it, does not serve to change the   
world you came from one bit. That world still exists. In fact it *was*   
the world Ukyo just brought you home from."   
Ranma felt a growing fear. "But, if I'm not from here... Wouldn't   
I... Have to go... um, back?"   
Belldandy took his hand. "Don't let it concern you, Ranma. You are   
home now. This dimension has strained and fought itself to teach you.   
You now belong to it, and none other. It is here that you will reach   
your greatest destiny."   
Her words were like balm, soothing troubled waters. "Thank you,   
Bell-chan. You really *do* make things turn out alright." He grew   
concerned again. "But, what about pops? And Happosai? They were both   
using the mirror with me."   
Belldandy smiled. "The Destiny Ring was for you alone. Those two got   
sent back to their world of origin when you began to use it."   
"And myself? What about me? Wasn't there another me in *this* world   
before I began to use the bracelet?"   
She patted his hand. "There was. But that you is *within* you now.   
You are part of the same person. Two destinies have combined to produce   
you, Ranma. You are a very special person, and are being groomed for a   
very important role."   
"But doesn't that leave one world without me?"   
She showed sorrow. "There are *many* worlds without you, Ranma. In   
some you have never existed at all. But in a great many you have died,   
or been destroyed by some hostile source."   
His lips twisted in wry humor. "For some reason that reminds me of   
Akane."   
"Oh, yes. Her anger, and her cooking, have killed you many times."   
Ranma grew chill. He'd been half joking.   
But Belldandy wasn't. She patted his hand in comfort. "Ranma, I'll   
be happy to explain your past. But I'm also here to teach you. Will you   
listen?"   
He nodded unreservedly.   
She smiled. "That's good. There is much you have to learn. You must   
know that Genma has never been concerned with the happiness of others.   
It is even his fault in this feud with Kuno and your family." The   
goddess' eyes showed grief. "That man got Keiichi and other good men   
killed!"   
Ranma was used to thinking of his... of Genma as a bad person. But   
this? He was having trouble assimilating it.   
"Okay, Bell. You say it. I'll believe it. I just never thought..."   
Belldandy felt sorry for him. "Genma has always been wicked, Ranma.   
It's just that without someone to restrain him he became truly evil.   
Your mother was very happy with Keiichi, something Genma never made her.   
But she may die soon if this feud isn't stopped, and it's all Genma's   
fault!"   
Ranma found himself holding Belldandy, comforting her through her   
tears. His eyes hardened.   
"Hey Bell, I know what you've said to me, and it's hard. But I   
accept it. That makes Genma even more an enemy to my clan than Kuno ever   
was."   
She nodded, and Ranma found himself grateful to this beautiful girl. 

"Why thank you." Belldandy stopped crying long enough to smile.   
"Your mother was right. You *do* have a beautiful heart, Ranma Saotome." 

He took it with grace. "Hey, I get it from hanging out with people   
like you."   
She finished her tears with a bubbling laugh. "You are a kind soul.   
Which brings me to the next point of our lesson. Summon a ball of energy   
into your hand."   
He did so, so common a task that it didn't even strain him anymore.   
The goddess also summoned a ball of energy into her hand, but in   
appearance it was nothing like his own.   
"Can you tell me why these are different, Ranma?"   
He didn't answer at once, taking his time to analyze and answer   
properly. "Well, mine is chi energy. But yours is something else."   
"It's called mana, and we goddesses use it, as well as a very few   
mortals who are blessed with power. But there is something else. Can you   
tell me?"   
Ranma released his chi ball and shook his head.   
Belldandy held the ball in her hand forth and applied it to a   
bruised plant. The damage of a careless gardener distracted from his   
task was repaired in an instant, the plant shooting forth new leaves and   
blossoms.   
"You have great power, Ranma. But you have only ever used that power   
for fighting. You must now learn to also apply that energy to other   
things. The source of my power doesn't matter at all, neither does   
yours. But I can use mine to do many tasks besides fighting. I can   
build, and heal. Haven't you ever wished for the ability to make things   
right?"   
Had he ever!   
"Well, now is time for you to learn. Extend your senses into the   
plant." 

Much later, Ranma got an opportunity to introduce Rae and Ucchan to   
his mom. "Mother, here are two girls for whom I care very deeply..."   
The girls' shyness was dazzling in its beauty.   
Nodoka found herself well pleased. 

Ranma had become quite a manipulator of people over his lives, good   
at it, but still quite clumsy at times. He'd wanted so badly to be loved   
after his loss, to be wanted and accepted that his subconscious had   
kicked into overdrive, learning every subtly of gesture and expression   
to make people like him, to trust him, to be his friends. Finally he   
exuded an aura of likability as powerful as Kasumi's vaunted kindness.   
It made people want to forgive him, believe him, and be nice to him,   
and it did alot to offset his not-quite-vanished clumsiness.   
He still had some of the worst luck in the universe, but now he had   
more skills to deal with it. And when he turned on the charm full bore   
he could accomplish miracles. Things like getting Rae and Ucchan to be   
best friends when they'd hardly known each other a day. Getting both of   
them to instantly trust Kasumi as a big sister, and to be happy about   
the prospect of living under the same roof.   
Getting them to love their mother in law like she was their own   
natural one was not something he had to put himself out over. Ranma   
didn't get his charm from a cereal box. 

Nabiki got home from a *very* rough day trading. She normally   
wouldn't be so frazzled by something as minor as a tumultuous betting   
pool, but then again she was rarely one of the subjects of the betting.   
Personal involvement made these things so difficult. She could   
hardly clear her mind from what she *wanted* long enough to be objective   
about what was likely. And he *was* engaged to her, wasn't he? Couldn't   
that mean there was just a *little* affection in his `favor' to her?   
Laying odds on something you wanted badly wasn't fun. She'd felt   
this rending inside her when she'd laid down four to one odds against   
her marrying him.   
Nabiki picked up her mail. Kasumi had been here today, with a small   
army of men helping her pack up and leave. She'd never seen her sister   
so happy, and the house still glowed with the fading warmth of her care.   
The mail had been neatly stacked in piles, already sorted and ready to   
be dealt with. There was a tray on the table with a little note on the   
cover, the note said "Nabiki."   
Nabiki opened the cover. Dinner.   
She ate absently, looking around her at the house she'd grown up in.   
What would it be like tomorrow? Probably a mess. Soun's paper would not   
have been cleaned up. Akane would probably try and take over the   
cooking. None of the three of them left had much in the way of domestic   
skills. Things could get bad very quickly.   
Nabiki shuddered, faced with the choice of hiring a maid and a cook   
or living in hell.   
Trying to distract herself from those morbid thoughts she went   
through her mail. Bills, bills, and what was this? She held a small   
package wrapped in brown paper. Who would be sending her a video tape?   
No return address.   
She could think of two things instantly, one was that someone was   
trying to blackmail *her*, an unlikely possibility, but one that had   
been tried once or twice. The other was that maybe someone from the   
camera club had caught that scene at lunch with Ranma and might be   
offering her a chance to buy.   
Nabiki would hate to admit it, but she would take a huge chunk out   
of her bank account and maybe even shave her head to have a copy of that   
moment on tape.   
She opened it. The tape was labeled "Romantic Moments" and was from   
some place called "Goddess Productions." This told Nabiki nothing either   
way. She put the tape in the vcr, she'd find out soon enough, either   
way.   
A white haired woman in a wildly unconservative business suit   
appeared on the TV screen. "Why hello." She said. "I hear of someone   
who's unlucky in love." 

Ranma escorted Rae home. She lit up the night.   
"Oh, Ranma! It was so wonderful to meet your mother! She was so   
sweet. And I think I could be friends with the others, too." She had a   
nice laugh. "They're not at all like Serena."   
He walked her to the gate of her temple, she paused, holding his   
hand. "This all just seems so wonderful. I can't help thinking I'm   
dreaming."   
He kissed her. "Still feel like you're dreaming?" He asked.   
"Uh, huh." She nodded breathlessly, stars in her eyes.   
He led her up the steps. Soon he was beside her at the door.   
"Well, goodnight. I love you, Rae." Ranma tried to go, but the   
moment was too beautiful. He let it drag out a moment longer, not quite   
willing to let it end.   
"Ranma, I couldn't believe it when you offered to take me home. I   
live so far. It... it means alot to me. Could you? I mean, you could   
stay the night. It's so far to your home, and you could sleep in the   
spare bedroom."   
A light chuckle. "Which one?"   
She blushed rosy. "This one." Rae pointed to the one not far from   
her room.   
He touched her nose. "No sleepwalking." He commanded lightly. They   
lingered long minutes after, basking in the warmth of each other's   
company, then went separately to their rooms. 

Morning touched the temple with rosy fingers. Ranma was already out   
practicing when Rae emerged from her sleep. He bounced off a tree, did a   
triple flip in the air, and landed before her.   
"This really is a wonderful yard, but I can't practice all alone."   
He commented, muscles taunt from the workout.   
Rae found the ground interesting, her feelings threatening to   
overwhelm her. "I really couldn't do that without my Sailor powers.   
Maybe you could spar with my grandpa."   
"Maybe." He conceded, taking her hands in his. "But I'm going to   
have to train a sparring partner if I'm to stay in form, and I'd rather   
train with you. Please? I really need the practice, and I don't see your   
grandfather anywhere."   
"He's probably in the shrine." Rae thought about moving away,   
instead found herself leaning against him. "And I have to do my chores."   
She motioned toward the wood floors she'd have to polish.   
They gleamed back at her.   
Ranma had once lived here too.   
"Oh, alright." Rae surrendered, murmuring happily into his chest.   
"Good. Thank you, Rae. Let's start with leaps. You get alot of your   
force out of the same muscles you use to balance. So here, let me show   
you the exercises..."   
Her grandfather found them, half an hour later, balancing carefully   
on short rods of bamboo, stuck into the ground and sticking maybe a foot   
out. Ranma was stepping carefully from pole to pole, encouraging Rae to   
go slow until her legs grew used to it.   
"Rae!" He grandfather called. "Who is this young man you're with? Is   
he coming to train at the temple?"   
Rae blushed and laughed.   
Ranma jumped from his position and bowed before the old man.   
"Honored Grandfather, I have asked Rae's permission to marry her, and   
she has consented."   
The old man pulled out a pair of victory fans and began dancing   
around. "At last! Oh, Rae! I was so afraid at your not having a   
boyfriend." He went on and on.   
Rae joined her betrothed, fitting herself perfectly into his side.   
The pair of them looked on in joy at the elder's antics. 

Nodoka normally didn't have much use for the paper, but this morning   
Priory brought her a copy himself. Curious, and a bit apprehensive, she   
accepted it and looked to the page it was open to, which happened to be   
the front page.   
There was a picture of her son, standing on a rooftop somewhere, in   
the act of striking off a man's head. A second picture revealed him   
being carried from the site of a large building fire, a defensive ring   
of young maidens arrayed around him. She read the article, just a mash   
of speculation as to who this young man was and if he was allied to the   
Sailor Scouts.   
Nodoka thought back to that night those same girls had appeared   
around them on the street, Ranma had called two of them by name. She put   
the paper down.   
"Priory, have the editor of this paper called. Inform him that he is   
to expect me today. I will speak to him regarding this article. I own   
this paper and have specifically directed that my family receive no   
publicity."   
The butler bowed. "Yes, ma'am." 

The Kuno family got a different paper. One of the residents picked   
it up and saw the photo on the front page. "Mars' Suiter Identified!"   
The article described how, with long range optics trained on the   
site, they had caught Sailor Mars embracing a young man they had   
apparently rescued.   
The young lady dropped the paper in rage. "SASUKE!" 

To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

First of all, I would like to thank the lot of you for the wonderful   
mail I have been receiving. I really don't deserve it (I'm a creep) but   
I like it all the same. 

Well, it looks like there's life in the story yet, and so it will   
continue. 

I wrote part five here to relax. Not even Ranma can be fighting all   
the time and, well, I wanted to see what he did in his off hours.   
Besides, there are so many questions that need answers, and I can't   
get much explaining done in the middle of a fight. 

Ah, who am I kidding? I like mushy stuff. So... um, please DON'T sue   
me. 


	6. 6

jared@netuser.com> 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Six   
A Little Fighting 

by Jared Ornstead 

A Disclaimer left lying casually around with no one to defend it (ah, my   
silky darling): 

All applicable disclaimers are in force. Some have forced their way   
in, others are learning the Force, while some are officers on the force. 

Just to help out my little farce. 

************************************************   
Ranma vaulted with a double turn over a churning line of light   
cannon fire, sliding between two high velocity missiles.   
Whoever was in that helicopter wasn't caring about civilian   
casualties. Half the shops on the street had been destroyed in its first   
volley, then it had started to unleash the heavy stuff.   
"Haven't you got a reliable lock *yet!*" The pilot screamed at her   
sensor tech, wrestling with her controls.   
"Sorry, Arisa." The tech apologized. "He moves around too swiftly.   
Our tracking programs are not set up to follow anything that   
unpredictable. The programmers never expected to have to track a human   
able to leap buildings!"   
The pilot ravished a small shopping mall with autocannon fire, using   
the blasts to hide a cluster munition until it was almost to target,   
then rippled off an entire rack of antipersonnel rockets for   
simultaneous impact.   
They missed.   
"Where is that support we called for?!" The pilot screamed, dodging   
a chi blast.   
Six articulated spider tanks pulled off the deserted freeway and   
began to skim into the battle zone, downloading tracking and targeting   
information from the heavily engaged helicopter.   
"Why won't this guy stay *STILL?!*" Arisa screamed, launching a   
weighty tub of explosive submunitions.   
Ranma waved one arm and summoned a blazing arc of energy. "Flaming   
Chi Wave!!!" Using his internal energies to destroy the bomblets before   
they could get close to him.   
He landed on a building. "Great Lightning Trident, Attack!!!" He   
cried.   
Arisa nudged the helicopter's controls out of the way of the   
oncoming trifold beam of energy. "And just who *is* this guy? Does he   
have military grade weapons hid up his sleeves or something?"   
The autocannons ran on empty.   
Tech addressed pilot. "Arisa! Frame stress has reached critical!   
Weapons are down to forty mark elevens and a single multicannon."   
The pilot saturated the area around the fleeing martial artist with   
the remaining missiles.   
"Make that one multicannon." The tech corrected.   
Three of the tanks pulled up in bombardment positions, while the   
rest went around for flanking. The area around Ranma was soon a hail of   
high velocity impact craters chewing apart stone as if it were cheese.   
"Where is he? I've lost him!" Arisa screamed.   
"I don't KNOW!" The tech pounded her controls. "I've never had a   
good lock on him and now he's just up and disappeared!"   
A scythe-like chi blast destroyed two of the spider tanks. The   
remaining one fell back before a ghostly dragon form that crackled and   
destroyed buildings in its wake. The cover it found was insufficient and   
the third tank exploded.   
"Is this guy a soldier or a special effects department?!" The pilot   
bounced higher, trying to get a good angle for the last of her   
ammunition. She caught a flash of red racing from one end of the trench,   
and volleyed half a hundred rounds at it.   
Ranma dodged into bushes and beneath a torn canopy racing in the   
prop wash. It hid him from sight, and that was all that stone could do   
right now.   
Man, the effort it took to get to school in the morning!   
Pity. He'd been looking forward to his second day. He liked his   
classes.   
One of the tank crewers caught a blip on the infrared where nothing   
was burning. "Volley fire on my target!" The commander roared.   
The last three tanks opened up with all they had, turning a shop   
into flying particles and causing massive secondary explosions of gas   
and water mains.   
Water?   
Ranma dunked himself and grabbed a strip of cloth for a kimono.   
Please let them believe its just another fleeing pedestrian. She prayed.   
Please let this work.   
Ranko began to run.   
The helicopter swooped down upon her, loudspeakers on. "That trick   
hasn't worked since you were seven years old Saotome-san! You think we   
Kunos don't know about your curse?"   
As multicannon bursts came close enough to tear cloth from her body   
Ranko reminded herself once again about that rule not to take anything   
for granted this time. A fragment of exploding stone whizzed into her   
chest and punctured a lung.   
Oops. 

The Sailor Scouts stood atop a building, trying to see more than   
smoke, haze and explosions. A spider tank crawled through a nearby bank,   
bringing the building down on itself with complete disregard.   
Even Jupiter was nonplused.   
"We're supposed to fight *that*?" She asked in wonder.   
A four story armored behemoth comprising several hundred tons of   
weapons and armor disengaged its jump jets and came to land through the   
roof of the ruined shopping mall.   
"Combat units!" It blared at ninety decibels. "Keep Saotome-san   
contained until the satellite beam weapons can be brought into play!"   
Sailor Moon ran screaming from the fray, the other Sailors racing   
after. They would grab her and return, but even Mars wasn't eager for   
this. 

Ranko could think of only one way to heal that injury. She found   
cover.   
"Earth Power Make-Up!"   
Sailor Earth emerged from the manhole cover that had given her   
refuge. With skirt and hair whipping in the gale she faced the onrushing   
tanks.   
"For destroying the lives of innocent civilians, for the damage you   
have caused to Tokyo." She was amazed herself that she could be heard   
through this. "The vengeance you have sought will now be visited upon   
you!   
"Earth Cataclysm, Erupt!!!" She drove a fist into the ground.   
The ground bucked and swayed under her blow, jumping and then   
settling in a radius of miles. A spreading ring of shock washed out from   
her, turning buildings and rubble into airborne particles capable of   
driving through armor. The onrushing tanks, as well as new   
reinforcements, had exterior armor plates melt away like soap bubbles in   
a gale as the sandstorm of stone washed their substance away. The   
helicopter rode the initial waves and was flung far distant instead of   
being reduced to fragments.   
The only thing standing around Sailor Earth was the great armored   
behemoth. Its surface pitted and scarred, many of its weapons washed   
away, it still brought heavy beam cannons to bear.   
Earth dodged an attack that would have leveled a city block, had   
there still been one there to level. The explosion backlit her and   
scorched her backside.   
She landed on bare earth. "For allowing yourself in injure   
bystanders in your petty feud, prepare to receive your punishment!"   
"Stone Spears, Rise!!" She threw a punch into the air.   
Shards of stone measuring dozens of yards long sprang from the   
ground under the behemoth, piercing its meter-thick defensive plating   
and running the thing through as if the entire dreadnought were no more   
than packing foam. One spear struck the primary energy plant and the   
machine exploded in a withering blast. 

A huge drop of sweat formed on Beryl's head as she watched this all   
occur through her crystal ball.   
"Uh, Nephrite. Are you *sure* none of you know who this new Sailor   
Scout is?"   
Nephrite bowed. "My queen. Even our loremasters have been able to   
find nothing. There were no records of this Sailor Earth in our battles   
with the Moon Kingdom."   
The queen looked at him askance. "First Jadeite lost without a word,   
now this new Sailor Scout appears. They're obviously related. I want you   
to find out what you can. But remember to bring me energy, Nephrite."   
He bowed. "Of course, my queen." 

Amazingly, a reporter had survived the explosions intact. He emerged   
from beneath the doorstep of what had once been a bath, still filming   
with his remote-feed camera. The other Sailors landed in formation   
around Sailor Earth.   
"Yea! You did it!"   
There were congratulations all around. Mars would have glomped Earth   
but the latter pointed out the reporter.   
The Scouts all disappeared. 

Arisa fought her combat helicopter back into some semblance of   
control. Smoke poured from one engine and a few armor plates were just   
plain gone.   
They were miles from the source of that blast.   
"Arisa, the frame is vibrating. Can you get us back home?"   
The pilot gritted her teeth. "Yes. But where did that Sailor Scout   
come from!!"   
The tech put a finger to her lip. "Well, we were destroying major   
portions of the city."   
The pilot blinked in total surprise. "Oh. I guess you're right. They   
*do* respond to that sort of disturbance, don't they?" She eyed her   
readouts. "Weapons gone, frame stressed, an engine lost and major fuel   
leaks. I guess we can't go back to the fight now, can we?"   
The tech grimaced in fear. "Go *back*? What would you want to do   
that for?"   
Arisa stuck her nose in the air. "We failed to eliminate the target.   
Lady Kuno will not be pleased with us."   
"But how were we to know that he could evade missiles like that?   
It's not our fault that the tracking software couldn't follow him!" The   
tech blinked and began to grin. "Hey! We got that whole fight on record!   
We'll be able to modify the targeting system to adjust to his   
movements!"   
A major portion of her board shorted out, lights going dark and   
instruments smoking.   
"What was that?" Arisa asked, controlling the copter through sheer   
force of will.   
The tech hung her head. "The combat recorder. All information is   
lost." She pivoted in her seat and activated a different instrument. A   
woman's face appeared on the radar screen.   
"Lady Akiko," the tech addressed the matron of the Kuno family. "We   
have lost Saotome-san. Our helicopter is heavily damaged and we can no   
longer continue the chase. We are very, very sorry. Do you have better   
news from the rest of the assault group?" She asked hopefully.   
The mother of Tatewaki Kuno remained calm. "Our tanks last report   
was of the appearance of a Sailor Scout. Satellites caught our vehicles   
being destroyed. You may come back to base. There will be other   
opportunities." 

Ranma and the group of girls who were oft times Scouts were walking   
through the park together.   
"Pity about them canceling school today."   
"Well, next time try to avoid causing a national emergency, Ranma."   
Mina said it with a smile.   
"Hey, you take on a military assault team with your arms full of   
school books and see how *you* do. Look, I got a cannon hole through my   
history text."   
Serena laughed.   
"You're lucky it's not your head." Lita advised. "I've never seen   
anyone go through what half you have and live."   
He shrugged. "Someday maybe you'll have to. Man, I wish they hadn't   
gotten my *history* text. The math doesn't change much, and I speak   
better English than our teacher, but the history is different every   
time."   
Amy couldn't help but heft her own books in approval. "Maybe we   
should have a study session then. I can tutor you on our history if   
you'll help me with the math."   
"Hey!" Lita agreed. "Can you help me with gymnastics, too? I have   
some moves I've got to learn and I can't *imagine* you not knowing   
them."   
Serena tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and fell face first in   
some bushes, her legs kicking feebly in the air.   
They hauled her out, bawling.   
"Serena, your such a klutz!" Rae reproved the girl.   
"She's just having a late growth spurt." Ranma addressed her kindly.   
"Anybody can be clumsy when their arms and their legs are a slightly   
different length each day. Heck, *I* trip over my feet when I'm growing   
like that. Although, I admit, I don't think I'm *that* bad."   
He shrugged. "She's starving and clumsy and tired. All indications   
of someone who's growing too fast. She'll get over it."   
Serena stopped crying, amazed to find an explanation for once. The   
others grew quiet as well, thinking how simple an answer they'd been   
given.   
"Could that really be what's wrong with her?" Rae asked.   
"Sure, some of the most graceful people I know fell over their own   
feet as kids. They learned hard to compensate, and when they stopped   
growing so much they'd earned that little extra poise. Nature is full of   
little quirks like that."   
They digested this in silence.   
"But you're graceful." The way Mina said it made it a question.   
He nodded. "Yes. And there's nothing stopping you from being, too.   
You just have to train for it."   
"Will you train us?" All the girls asked simultaneously, pleading in   
their eyes. 

Half a dozen Amazons dropped down to the path before them. Ranma   
already had a defensive move completed before he'd read enough of their   
stance to know that they weren't there to threaten him.   
He returned to ready position.   
"I take it we are going to talk before killing each other this   
time?" He addressed the familiar withered woman at their head.   
"Yes, mighty one. I would have a word with you, if I may?"   
"If I might invoke the peace-law. No feuds at public gatherings, no   
fighting save for challenges."   
He held himself conspicuously relaxed as he said it, yet as ready   
for action as ever. His stance was a pose, but a polite one and the   
Amazons read it as such. They seated themselves a safe distance away   
when their matron accepted the terms.   
"We heard tales of a man possessing knowledge of secret Amazon   
techniques. We came to investigate, and found the culprit. But you   
obviously know more of our ways than just a few moves." The crone   
observed.   
A mystery solved.   
Ranma's face brightened. "Oh. Yes, I see. You can't have a   
grandmaster of Wushuu Amazonian Kung Fu running around unidentified, can   
you?" His features darkened. "Hey, wait a moment. You're supposed to be   
trying to kill me. The only reason you *wouldn't* be is if..."   
His voice trailed off.   
He held up a finger. "Let me get this straight. You, bearer of the   
matriarch's staff, are leading a group of Amazon women, tournament   
winners by the looks of them, in a distant land. Since there has been no   
time for this group to have assembled and come after me from China, this   
has to be a husband hunting expedition. You were traveling in search of   
martial artists able to defeat these girls and marry into the tribe."   
"Certainly, but as you no doubt know we are leery of outsiders using   
our special techniques. While we were challenging dojos in the area we   
came to hear of your use of the Chestnut Fist and the Splitting Cat   
Hairs, two of our most secret moves. We were understandably upset by a   
non-Amazon having them. And our law requires that those who do be dealt   
with."   
"Yes, great grandmother. I remember you teaching me that law."   
Her eyes bulged.   
He blushed. "Did I say that? Well, I guess there's no retracting it.   
Yes, great grandmother, there is no need for you to worry. I will not   
pass on our techniques to those who are not of the tribe."   
Cologne's face grew calculating. "I have seen you in battle, and   
address you with respect accordingly. You are indeed a mighty warrior.   
But who are you to claim kinship with me?"   
All eyes were on Ranma. He suddenly wished he were on more friendly   
ground. "History has been altered, honored elder, but let it suffice   
that there was a time when I entered your village not as an outsider."   
Her eyes narrowed. "I would have an explanation of that."   
He looked around, no strangers in sight. The Amazons were relaxed,   
and they would likely sense any others who came close. He pulled out the   
bracelet.   
"I think you recognize this, great grandmother. For you are the one   
who taught me what I know of it." He replaced it in his pocket. "Through   
its use I have entered your village many times as friend, ally, or   
member." He smiled at the memory. "A fact which annoyed many of the   
girls no end as, from their perspective, this know-nothing male suddenly   
acquired the ability to best all of them."   
He'd found amusement in that over and over again. Fortunately a   
tribe member could fight another without invoking either kiss of death   
or marriage. They'd never get any practice otherwise.   
He went on. "But even without the ring, in my very first life, I   
defeated Shampoo. And from that time you called me son in law."   
Cologne's smile showed warmth. "Well, that *does* make our task   
easier. You see, after witnessing your last battle none of us were very   
eager to fight you. In my eyes you could likely slay half our tribe   
before we eventually killed you. Yet our law requires that no outsider   
know our secrets and live. But now we have a solution. We'll have the   
challenge fight this very moment. And should you defeat Shampoo again   
you will marry her and rejoin our tribe."   
Ranma dropped his face into his hands.   
Mina could swear she heard him ask. "What *is* it with me?"   
He raised his face to her. "Great grandmother, there are..." He did   
a quick count. "At present five, no six, women that I am engaged to."   
"Why the uncertain count, son in law?"   
"It varies depending on whom you ask. My mother counts one as   
engaged that neither the girl, nor myself, consented to. And two of the   
others have only a temporary claim." He rolled his eyes. "So far."   
The girls were all seated on the grass, eating snacks and watching   
them avidly. Ranma cocked his eyebrow at them.   
Mina laughed. "Don't mind us. We're just watching our favorite soap   
opera."   
There was a forest of giggling.   
"Just try not to get yourself engaged *too* much, husband dear." Rae   
teased, crossing her legs seductively. "We can't have you getting all   
worn out."   
This encouraged some very frank and wicked speculation among the   
girls. Ranma found himself getting as red as his shirt.   
Shampoo came forward, her bonbori held at the ready.   
Ranma considered a thousand different ways of defeating her, and all   
four ways of trying to weasel out of this. There really *was* that law   
about killing the outsider who knows Amazon secrets, and there were only   
two ways of not being an outsider. Marry in, or be born a member.   
And Cologne had just shown how she felt the matter should end.   
But that wasn't even the main point. Shampoo was a warrior, and   
there was an almost unique blend of circumstance and unresponsiveness   
required to win her love and admiration. Merely beating her would win   
the body, but the heart gave itself or it was never to be had. He'd have   
never believed, just from his first life, just how *hard* it was to win   
Shampoo's affection.   
With Ukyo, he'd had dozens of lives meeting her, falling in love,   
becoming friends, down to the point where he'd "met" her so many times   
that he could see her for the first time and be best friends in an hour.   
He knew *all* her buttons and genuinely liked her.   
Then there'd been that life where he'd been married to her and blown   
that. He was still working off penance.   
With Rae, well, Rae was Rae. She was charming, sociable, witty and   
fun. And she was one of the few people he'd met who'd seen, ever so   
slightly, into the memories hidden behind his eyes. Plus there was the   
fact that, down in her soul, she was alot like Ukyo. That made him love   
them both all the more.   
Shampoo. He'd lived in her village, followed her ways, but he'd   
never really learned how she worked. On the surface she seemed totally   
simple, underneath that she was horribly complex. The underlying reason   
why Mousse had never won her out of lifetimes of trying.   
And Ranma had never figured her out.   
He had no wish to be married to someone who would not love him.   
She thrust a bonbori toward his face, he dove under it and behind   
her shouting. "Saotome School of Martial Arts Final Technique... Run   
Away!!!"   
He vanished over the horizon.   
Shampoo blinked a couple of times at her arm frozen in mid thrust.   
Then she got *really* mad. 

The aftermath of the giant armored battle faded from the enormous   
viewscreen hung in a revoltingly ugly throne chamber. On a throne   
bearing a good resemblance to petrified intestines a creature lounged.   
The creature's left half was one hundred percent artificial. A   
complete cyborg replacement for battle damage suffered eons ago. The   
creature's right half was a mix of tissue, battle armor, and cyborg   
enhancements.   
He laughed.   
"Amazing, dear sister. The humans of this world are quite   
aggressive." He laughed again. "They should make good hunting."   
Cross stood next to her brother. Like Chaos, one side of her body   
was entirely machine. But, blending with the battle armor she wore on   
her left, she retained a more human appearance. Unlike her brother, a   
creature of spikes and protrusions. He reveled in the alienness of his   
body. She would have killed anyone to dare to suggest that there was   
enough still human left in her to care about vanity. But then, she would   
probably kill you anyway, seeing as how that's what she got her kicks   
off of. So it made little enough of a difference.   
"They should be amusing, don't you think?" Chaos asked his sister.   
She tossed her hair, grinning wickedly. "I have chosen my first   
target."   
"Oh? Don't kill it too soon. Make it scream a bit. We should enjoy   
ourselves before blowing this planet back into so much dust."   
On the screen now stood revealed three women working happily in a   
kitchen while wild deer and songbirds played around them. 

Ranma stopped well outside of danger's range and, amazingly, in   
front of a restaurant run by someone who didn't want to marry him.   
It was Akie's, a small family restaurant owned by Kuno's mother.   
That fact didn't alter his appetite one bit, the Saotome stomach being   
one of the few things that even a wish couldn't change. Besides, having   
people attempt to kill him at meals was both entertaining and fun.   
He went inside.   
The restaurant was packed, with a line waiting for seats   
unacceptably long. So Ranma grabbed a menu from the server's kiosk and   
dropped himself into a booth occupied by two ladies who were merely   
nursing a cup of coffee between them.   
"'Hey, sorry to drop in on you like this..."   
Both women were shivering in their seats with grimaces of fear. In   
fact they looked so disconcerted that he wondered for a minute if he'd   
somehow regained that purple face and horns he'd worked so hard to get   
rid of a dozen realities back.   
"Saotome-san!" One of them babbled.   
Ranma recognized the voice. "Well, I'll be. From the copter, right?   
Well, don't worry. You're just after me `cause you're *paid* to do it   
and I never kill people like that off-duty. Hey, why just the cup of   
coffee? Aren't you two hungry?"   
They really did have iron nerves and it showed in how swiftly they   
lost their cowering.   
"Lady Akiko canceled our bonuses and seized most of our savings in   
retribution for... for this morning." The tech answered.   
Ranma shrugged, sliding into the booth. "Okay, that explains that.   
Well I'm starved, and I hate to eat alone. Here." He called the waitress   
over to them, holding open his menu.   
"We'll have everything from here," he traced a long line. "To here.   
Triple helpings." He handed her a wad of bills and the menu.   
The waitress wandered away like a wooden automaton, recovering her   
senses somewhat near the kitchen.   
Arisa, the pilot, slapped her hands on the table and made as if to   
stand up. "How DARE you attempt to bribe us? And how dare you face us in   
Lady Akiko's own restaurant?"   
Ranma waved her down lazily. "Because I'm hungry, and so are you. If   
you attempt to kill me during the fish sticks, that's fine. I just want   
to get a little rice and cheese under my belt."   
The pilot sank back down into her seat, disbelieving.   
Ranma went on. "Anyway, it doesn't matter to me. I'm *not* trying to   
bribe you. I just got out of another fight and I'm honestly feeling   
hungry. Try to slip a knife in my ribs during dessert if you like, but   
I'm starved. Besides, it's a bit refreshing to eat with someone who   
doesn't want to marry me. I get to forget worrying about having a hammer   
stuck in my skull if I say something wrong."   
"Gotcha!" A little goddess squealed, slamming her mallet into his   
head. Ranma disappeared in a puff of smoke.   
Skuld wiped her brow. "Wow! I haven't had a *recurring* bug like   
that in a long time." Her face screwed up a bit. "Hmm, maybe Belldandy   
knows something about it. I really should have responded to her last   
call."   
The goddess walked off, leaving two terrified ladies behind. 

***** 

Lightning split the air and with a falling scream a man dropped into   
the Tendo yard.   
Ranma looked out of the bushes around himself. Nice house, well   
maintained, Kasumi out hanging wash. Kasumi saw him.   
"Why hello, Ranma. Did you enjoy your trip with your friend?"   
Ranma hedged, uncertain where he was. "I forgot something and had to   
come back for it. Can you remember what we were saying as we left?"   
Kasumi frowned, looking slightly unsettled. "No, it was all very   
confusing. You said something about coming home. But it was all after   
some argument, and you didn't want to live here anymore. It had   
something to do with Ukyo, I think. Did you change your mind? Are you   
still going to be living with us?"   
Kasumi pled with her eyes that he would say something that would   
make it all better.   
Ranma wished he had some idea of what he'd done wrong. Standard   
copout #1, he went to Kasumi and addressed her with genuine caring.   
"Kasumi, what would you want me to do?"   
Relief flooded her, her brightness doubled. With a smile she said.   
"Well, if you're ready, I'm sure everyone would be pleased if you would   
go in and talk with them."   
Ranma smiled. Standard Kasumi. It made him feel good just being near   
her. He nodded and went in, still wondering what blowup it was he was   
going to be fixing. 

The Tendo living room was packed. Soun and Genma were bawling,   
Nabiki was in the act of comforting Akane, and didn't look too good   
herself. Shampoo and Ukyo were like twin book ends, watching Cologne   
speaking with Belldandy.   
Belldandy?   
Ranma's eyes bulged at the goddess. He cleared his throat. There was   
instant silence as the room turned toward him.   
"Uh, did I miss something?"   
He was glomped by a handful young girls.   
"Ranma NEVER leave Shampoo again!" The buxom Amazon cried. Ukyo   
glomped onto his chest.   
"How DARE you leave just after proposing to me?"   
"Ranma! I'm so *glad* you came back!"   
"It's bad policy to go leaving us fiances behind, Ranma."   
The room stopped to stare at Nabiki, glomped onto Ranma's left arm.   
She grinned unabashedly and held on, tilting her head. "Well, that *was*   
part of the deal with the tango thing. I'm one of the brides." She sang   
triumphantly.   
Ranma was *very* unused to returning to any reality that he had   
left, but he was beginning to get a clue.   
Belldandy came to his rescue. "Oh, Ranma. Something must have gone   
wrong. Didn't your friend just carry you back to your home universe?"   
Ranma shrugged those parts of his body without females hanging on   
them. "Sure. I spent most of a day there. Look, this has really got me   
confused, and I figure you can answer this. Which universe is this?"   
Belldandy excused herself and made a telephone call. She came back   
with a slightly less puzzled expression.   
"This is your universe of origin, Ranma. But it is no longer your   
home dimension. That place needs you. I just sent a call to my father,   
and he has been speaking to my double on the other world. Things will   
get sorted out."   
Ranma's eyes rolled. "Okay, whatever. Look, my brain just shorted   
out. Can you *please* just explain this so I can't mess up this time?"   
Belldandy shook her head. "But I think I know someone who can." She   
went and made another telephone call.   
"Where are you calling?" Akane asked, losing her grip on Ranma.   
"Heaven." Came Belldandy's simple reply.   
Nabiki's eyes danced with the possibilities of what the redial   
button could do for her.   
"Can you come at once?" Belldandy asked into the phone. She hung up,   
and moments later the dead TV sprang to life, allowing a shapely pair of   
bronze legs to exit the set, followed later by the rest of the goddess.   
Urd stepped into their midst.   
She leaned into Ranma over his fiances. "Well, if this isn't the   
one. As a goddess of love I'm *very* disappointed in you, Ranma. Take   
*advantage* of your situation." She grabbed his hand and stuck it down   
the front of Shampoo's shirt. "Like this."   
"Urd!" Belldandy called, reprovingly. Her hands on her hips.   
The elder goddess flinched, releasing her grip. Ranma's hand darted   
out of the silky confines as fast as it was able without leaving   
friction burns.   
"Oh, alright." Urd backed off a bit, not failing to notice the   
amusing reaction to her ploy. "Well, in plain and simple terms, Saotome.   
And remember this is history from *your* viewpoint, a timeline that   
exists only for you. You started in *this* world, born of Nodoka and   
Genma Saotome. You grew to sixteen years of age with all the trials and   
things you remember from your very first life, because this *was* your   
very first life. Then, a few days ago our time, ages for you, you got   
ahold of a broken magic mirror that was once used to travel through   
time. Your father thought that it would be a cheap way of traveling to   
China, where you could reverse your curse. Unfortunately, you forgot   
that it was a *broken* mirror."   
She tossed a lock of white hair out of her eyes. "Instead of a free   
trip to China you got flung into another dimension. There you robbed   
Happosai of... a certain item, and lived a little over three hundred   
lives. In fact, you worked yourself so deeply into that universe,   
rewriting its history so many times, that not having you there is   
*bound* to cause problems."   
Genma was stunned. "I remember stealing the mirror. The rest of it?   
I'd thought the mirror itself was just a bad dream."   
Urd looked patronizingly at him over her shoulder. "You weren't   
*supposed* to remember it, except as a dream. The... item, Ranma   
acquired was for him alone." Her voice lowered. "Things like that   
usually are."   
"Anyway," she got back to the main topic of conversation. "After   
having several hundred lives there you eventually ran afoul of our   
youngest sister's double in that world. It was easy enough for her to   
tell you weren't from that world, so she `debugged' you, sending you   
back here, to your world of origin. One of your friends came and rescued   
you not half an hour ago, and now you're back. Probably because Skuld   
has *still* not figured out that debugging you doesn't do her universe a   
bit of good."   
Ranma shook himself, dislodging females. "So I'm actually from this   
place?" He shook his head and sat down. "Sorry. Believe me when I say   
that it's easier to deal with aliens or Kasumi having a machinegun than   
to finally come home."   
Belldandy shook her head sorrowfully. "Not home, Ranma. This place   
is not home to you anymore. You are needed there now."   
Urd came up behind Ranma, slipping his hand onto Ukyo's round   
bottom. "Yeah, lover boy. You have *two* universes now. This is the one   
you came from, and the one you spent so long enjoying is your home. Come   
back and visit us anytime."   
Ranma jerked his hand back, but Nabiki was already assisting Urd in   
placing his other on one of her own feminine areas.   
Ranma stuck himself to the ceiling and began crawling to the nearest   
adjacent exit, shivering.   
Akane blazed at her sister. "You don't have to SEDUCE him, Nabiki!"   
The elder Tendo daughter was unperturbed. "Why? Because *you* never   
do? My *dear* Akane, there are ways to gain a husband without killing   
him."   
Kasumi was wandering in the door that Ranma was exiting through, a   
basket of wash in her arms. "Nabiki, you *know* it's wrong to do that   
before marriage! Wait until he proposes. It's not right to just go ahead   
with those things."   
Urd smirked. "A *very* pretty speech, my dear. But perhaps you   
should know. In his other universe Ranma has just as many fiances, but   
the woman he's about to marry is *you*."   
Kasumi dropped her basket in surprise.   
Ranma lost his hold and fell on top of her, arms and legs straddling   
her like an oil rig. They flashed to sitting positions, their backs to   
each other.   
"Oh." Kasumi whispered, blushing a delicate tinge of strawberry.   
Ranma lowered his eyes to the floor. "We got to the Tendo house with   
Nabiki, my mom and I. We were going to talk over some things. Stuff like   
my blood feud with Kuno. Anyway, the usual kind of stuff happened. You   
didn't know my family, and so you thought that me and my mother showing   
up with Nabiki meant I was her boyfriend, and figured that you'd set out   
the formal tea things just in case. I don't know *what* happened with   
Akane, but she started to faint on the stairs. I thought she was sick.   
So I went into the kitchen to tell you and we slipped in some oil. Then   
your dad walked in on us to see the formal tea things set out and you   
and I in a pile on the floor.   
"He went to call all his friends to tell them about us getting   
engaged."   
"Oh." Kasumi repeated, fidgeting shyly.   
Ukyo was giggling, shaking her head. "Wherever you go, whatever you   
do, you're still Ranma." She sobered. "Hey, what was that the other me   
said about you proposing to *her*?"   
Ranma raised his face to her. "The way my mother explained it to me   
was that I had direct descent through one of the major samurai lines.   
And because of that I could marry as many women as I wanted, or as I had   
to. She even arranged with Mr. Tendo to engage me to all three of the   
Tendo girls. Then I ran into Kasumi in the market, and people tried to   
kill me, and I ended up saving her, and taking her home, and well... The   
wedding day hasn't arrived yet but she have already moved her things out   
of her father's house and has come to live with my family."   
Kasumi found her hands *very* interesting. She studied them.   
Nabiki wondered what kind of hell her double must be living in.   
Without Kasumi the Tendo home must be a wreck.   
Ranma eyed Ukyo and Shampoo with longing in his eyes. "That's one   
reason why I want to go home so badly. Because in this world I couldn't   
marry *anyone* without breaking a dozen hearts."   
He sighed.   
"Though it isn't *that* easy. That Cologne let me challenge the   
other Shampoo. But she doesn't love me there." He choked up, looking at   
the Amazon. "I've lived so many lives in your village, Shampoo, but I've   
never figured out *why* it is you love me."   
Shampoo glomped onto him in an instant. "Is alright, husband. Wife   
love you now!"   
Ranma laughed with relief. "Yes, Shampoo. You do." He kissed her.   
And was promptly punted into low orbit by Akane. 

Ranma had a few minutes to ponder the scenery as he watched the   
miles pass beneath him. Falling a dozen stories he came to land with a   
crash in a park. The force of his impact broke a small grove of trees   
apart and tossed weighty logs about.   
Then it began to rain.   
Bruised, battered, and a bit dazed Ranko pulled herself out from the   
mess. Then the rest of the grove crashed apart around her in a titanic   
turmoil of destruction. 

"Flame Sniper!" Mars released a arrow of fire toward her enemy.   
Her opponent, just finishing up with a devastating blast of her own,   
nearly took the attack fully. A Daimon guarding her leader as she coaxed   
the heart from the chest of a helpless Lita. Sailor Mercury moved up to   
make her attack but was tripped up at the last moment.   
The Daimon chose that moment to relaunch her attack at the cluster   
of them. A wave of destruction crashed through, nearly finishing three   
scouts with that one blast, the attack washing over the untended grove   
her first strike had blown to ruins. 

Ranko saw it coming. Trapped under a log as she was there was no way   
to evade it, so she called out her power phrase, hoping like anything   
that her own transformation energies would dim the blast.   
Sailor Earth spun in a vortex of energies, the onrushing wall of   
energy parting, then crashing against her transformation sequence. The   
additional power nearly killed her, but her pen altered and soaked up   
the extra energy, using it to change itself in synch with the other   
transformation pens it could sense around it.   
Lightning washed over Earth's chest as flashes of blue flame blazed   
on her limbs. She spun as a tidal wave swirled around her feet,   
culminating in a waterspout that consumed her, leaving her standing on   
the lawn in full Sailor costume.   
Then the backlash of the modified transformation created an   
explosion that leveled the area.   
Blackened, fried, and with crispy red hair Sailor Earth stood in a   
crater around the edge of which stood the stunned combatants. 

Ranko could fight wounded, a skill that lapped over to her identity   
as Sailor Earth. She quickly identified those fighting. Four Sailors and   
one meanie nasty plus minion. Chi signatures on the Scouts indicated   
that they were good guys.   
Lita was on the ground, unconcious. Also, Sailors Uranus and Neptune   
were watching from the bushes, helping neither side. But the primary bad   
woman had dodged back from the helpless Lita.   
Before the others could react Sailor Earth summoned forth her staff   
and raised it toward the heavens.   
"Crystal Spears, Explosion!"   
Underneath the opposing team the ground erupted in a thousand shards   
of razor sharp crystal, each springing hundreds of feet out of the   
ground in a lethal bouquet of colorful splinters.   
The results of what this did to those caught in it were too gory to   
describe. The fight was over, the enemy dead. Earth leaned against her   
staff, her burned skin cracking and blood pouring out in rivulets.   
"Medic." Earth cried out, and then collapsed.   
Uranus jumped out of the bushes, toward the crystal heart that had   
been torn from Lita's bosom. "Hold it!" Sailor Moon cried, raising the   
imperium crystal.   
"Moon Crystal Healing!"   
A short animation sequence later Sailor Earth was back on her feet,   
showing few if any marks of damage. She started to check her limbs, but   
noticed that Uranus was striking down Venus, who had been guarding   
Lita's crystal heart.   
Neptune attacked Mars to provide a distraction.   
Earth got mad.   
A blazing arc of chi energy separated the Outer and Inner Scouts,   
Earth then appearing in the middle, facing the two Outer ones.   
"Explain yourselves or face annihilation. Without her heart Lita   
will die, why do you seek to take it by force?"   
Uranus glowered. "If she dies, she dies. That doesn't concern us."   
Neptune made a dash for the heart.   
"Tornado Kick!!!" Earth struck Neptune in the side with enough force   
to send her flying across the park, then pivoted to intercept the racing   
Uranus, catching her ankle in a hold and flinging her against a boulder   
face.   
Earth addressed the Inner Scouts without facing them. "Mars,   
covering fire. Venus, get Lita's heart back to her. Mercury, scan for   
Neptune, she'll be coming back. Sailor Moon, get the others out of here.   
My attacks aren't exactly pleasant and I wouldn't like to hurt any of   
you if I have to use them. Now Uranus, for the last time, explain your   
actions or face the second most powerful Scout."   
Uranus rose, wiping blood from her lips. "Second?"   
Earth smiled grimly. "Only the second. But because I don't destroy   
the whole world when I get mad I have *much* more freedom."   
"Deep Submerge!" Neptune cried out from behind. Earth leaped above   
it, turning to offer her own brand of attack.   
"Crystal Spears...Ooof!!!"   
Uranus had hit her with a powerful knee strike, then pulled out her   
sword to put down the offending Scout. Earth deflected the blow with the   
back of her hand and jammed a fist into her attacker's belly.   
Venus had finished restoring Lita's heart to her, and the Inner   
Scouts formed up.   
"Why do you fight against us?" Mercury questioned, obviously   
concerned.   
"Please don't hurt them!" Moon cried.   
Earth and Uranus landed facing each other, with Neptune hanging   
back, unsure now that the crystal heart was unavailable.   
"I don't relish killing potential allies, Uranus. But I don't like   
seeing my friends endangered either. Tell me what's up so we can work   
together, if we can."   
Uranus was furious. "I *don't* have to explain myself to you, Earth.   
And nothing can be allowed to stand in our way."   
"Don't make me kill you, Uranus. I'd grieve for whole minutes."   
"Uranus, I think we should go. The heart isn't here anymore. And it   
might not have been a talisman."   
Uranus was in a rage. "And now we'll never *know* will we? Don't you   
see! She'll stop us at every turn. She can't be allowed to keep on   
interfering like this!"   
Reluctantly, Neptune nodded and joined Uranus, hefting her staff.   
There was honest regret in Earth's eyes. "You aren't leaving me any   
way out of this. I can't let you kill the Inner Sailors."   
Twin attack phrases were called out and a blue and yellow ball of   
energy hurtled toward Earth. She dodged it effortlessly.   
"Crystal Spears, Explosion!"   
"World Shaking!"   
The spears sprang from the ground, only to be shattered apart into   
harmless dust as they rose to intercept the two Outer Scouts.   
"Deep Submerge!"   
"Flame Sniper!"   
Mars' arrow of fire failed to completely dissipate the onrushing   
attack of water, but it cut it down to negligible power.   
The five Inner Scouts formed up behind the embattled Earth.   
"Hold it, you three." Sailor Moon demanded. "We aren't here to fight   
each other. We've got... Eeek!" She dodged out of the way of a world   
shaking.   
A rose stuck itself in the ground at Uranus' feet. "There are two   
things that the pure heart will always deny itself." Tuxedo Mask   
announced from the top of a stone monument. "One is callousness toward   
the pain of others, and the second is to betray your friends. Beware,   
Outer Scouts, for I see in your actions that which would make you   
enemies of Justice."   
Uranus ground her teeth. Neptune looked to her for guidance.   
"The others don't matter. It's Earth who could stop us." Uranus   
hissed. Neptune nodded, stepping aside as if to speak to Tuxedo Mask.   
Uranus used the movement to mask a swift attack against Earth, diving   
for her throat with her sword.   
Earth thrust both her own fists forward like the arms of a giant   
tuning fork.   
"Earth Cataclysm, Wave!!!"   
Huge energy built up around her arms, then blasted forward with   
shocking force, burning effortlessly through hills, skyscrapers, even   
mountainsides that were in its way, turning a huge wedge of the   
countryside into a blackened ruin.   
Uranus lay gulping under the path of the energy beam, having barely   
escaped with her life. She'd called upon every ounce and gram of her   
super abilities not to be hit by that attack.   
Earth lowered her arms.   
"Next time Uranus, I won't aim to miss. Don't think I didn't know   
you could get under that. Now, you will *not* endanger any of the Inner   
Scouts, their allies or their friends, or I will *find* you. This is   
*my* planet, you insolent wench, and if you think you can hide from me   
on it you can think again."   
She held a fist blazing with energy inches from the other Scout's   
face. "The Inner Scouts are under *my* protection. And if *any* harm   
comes upon them at all, from you or from their enemies, there will be a   
reckoning between us. Now am I making myself absolutely clear?"   
Uranus nodded.   
Earth dropped the energy fist and turned to face Neptune. "You're   
not a bad sort, Neptune. Try working together with the Inner Scouts   
sometime, you might like it. Remember that I didn't seek this fight, and   
gave you every opportunity to explain. My only cause against you came   
from the danger you exposed my friends to. Don't harm them and I'll   
never have conflict with you again."   
Earth started to walk away.   
"Wait!" Tuxedo Mask called. "Who are you?"   
Blue Iczelion appeared, grabbed Sailor Earth, and vanished just as   
fast. 

*****   
Universe B, Home Universe 

Ranma was returned to his home in the Saotome estate. Rae and Ucchan   
began to discuss how to better defend him in the future, while Belldandy   
took him aside for some more instruction. 

Nephrite warped in, concealing himself in bushes. So! The stars had   
been right, here *was* one who was heavily tainted with destiny. Then he   
caught a look at the woman at his side and froze solid, using every   
scrap of his energy to hide himself.   
A goddess! Who would have known? How he would *love* to steal her   
energy for the negaverse. But it was not something to be gone about   
casually, first there was the matter of that capable-looking warrior she   
was speaking to, the one who had originally originally attracted   
Nephrite's attention.   
The boy's energy would be nothing compared to that of a goddess, but   
destiny does not taint men without reason. It was more than likely the   
young man could put up quite a fight, even against a negaverse general.   
Therefore, the boy would have to be disposed of quickly. Fighting a   
goddess would be possible, but Nephrite did not need outside   
distractions.   
Nephrite extended his own senses ever so subtly. Ha! The boy had a   
flaw a mile wide. Reality rippled around him, it would be the simplest   
thing to toss him into another universe. Once tossed he would cease to   
be a concern to anyone.   
Nephrite paused, reconsidering. Jadeite had continually come up with   
one good plan after another, but had continually been foiled. Nephrite   
had no idea of the boy's abilities, and it would be uncomfortable if he   
was able to return from whatever universe he threw him.   
Then he sensed another object. The lad was carrying a Destiny Ring!   
Nephrite smiled. The ring was at low power, but he could feed it just a   
trickle of energy and have it activate right after the universe jump.   
That way the boy would be too busy dealing with whatever the effects of   
the random wish were to return immediately. 

Nephrite sprang from concealment, leveling his crystal at the   
couple.   
"Ranma, I want to apologize. And I need to warn you about..."   
Belldandy cried out in astonishment.   
"Goodbye boy!" Nephrite shouted, and a beam of black energy swiped   
through where Ranma had been, wiping him from the face of existence.   
Rae and Ukyo came running up. "Ran-chan!" They chorused.   
Kasumi stopped where she stood, a plate of cookies in her arms. "Oh,   
my."   
Nephrite laughed, hanging in the air. "Your energy is MINE!   
Aaarrggghhh!"   
His chest disappeared in a fountain of blood, his organs reduced to   
an instant hash. Nodoka dropped her military-grade, over the shoulder   
gauss rifle and ran over to where the girls were congregating.   
"You *must* get him back!" Belldandy was shouting, her body   
shuddering with fright and tears.   
Ukyo clenched her fists helplessly. "I can't! The portal has already   
closed!" The tremor in her voice expressing greater pain than if she'd   
screamed the words. 

*****   
Random Universe 

Ranma came to looking down the length of an enormous table, he'd   
estimate about thirty feet long and twenty wide. The whole room was   
gigantic in proportion, but he had no time to digest it, as a twenty   
foot woman entered bearing a cake.   
On the cake were two candles.   
Ranma swiftly checked himself. He was tied in a chair, elevated on   
long legs to reach the level of the table, on his chest was a bib.   
"Gluklich geburtstag, Ranma!" The giant Nodoka beamed at him.   
Ranma sniffled. Another one of *those* realities. But he was nothing   
if not able to adapt. Clapping his diminutive hands together he   
responded. "Bitte, bitte, meine Mutti. Wieviel yahren habe ich?"   
Nodoka dropped her cake in surprise. 

Nodoka was STUNNED. Her son had replied! She had only been taking   
the German class for two weeks. It had seemed charming and harmless to   
greet him `happy birthday' in her faltering Deutsch.   
He had replied.   
Ranma's first words had been in German.   
And he'd spoken them tolerably well. Two years old and not a word of   
his native Japanese, and his first words were a complete sentence...   
...in German.   
Two complete sentences.   
Nodoka turned to her husband. "Keiichi, have *you* ever spoken   
German with Ranma before?"   
Keiichi shook his head. "I don't speak a word of it honey."   
Both turned back to view their son, who wasn't even squirming in his   
high chair.   
Ranma looked back at them.   
He finished his birthday meal deftly and adroitly, wielding his   
spoon with dexterity and skill. He didn't even spill or leave a   
noticeable mess. He failed to pull the cap off his safety cup, drop food   
over the side, splash things, or even get a spot on his bib.   
Nodoka became frantic with worry.   
Ranma looked up from where he had finished. Switching to Japanese he   
asked. "Mommy, may I be excused? I'm done now." 

Ranma found himself in a doctor's office before he could blink.   
He squirmed around in his mother's lap until he could grab a   
magazine. Then he pulled it open in front of him and began to read.   
Nodoka noticed. Squirming was normal, squirming was natural,   
comfortable, it soothed her. Then she noticed him looking at a medical   
journal.   
Nodoka laughed, and tried to substitute a children's book. "Here,   
Ranma. You'll like the pictures in this one better."   
Ranma shook his little head. "No mommy, I've already read that one." 

Her eyelids twitched, but she brushed it off. "Silly Ranma, don't   
you want to read to mommy?" It was a harmless game. Allow a child to   
pretend to read by looking at the pictures and making up a story. It was   
something her mother had done with her.   
Ranma looked up at his mother, then squirmed into a more comfortable   
sitting position. Taking the book he read.   
"Fox in Socks, by Dr. Seuss."   
Nodoka passed out somewhere in the third tongue twister, perfectly   
executed by her son who had never spoken until that day. 

Bemused and befuddled, Ranma's mother departed the next day, leaving   
with her medical group for a European tour and instructional trip.   
Keiichi, his dad, was also going out of town on the racing circuit.   
They left him in the care of his godfather, Genma.   
At the train station where Ranma said goodbye to his father, Keiichi   
pressed an envelope full on bills on Genma, and made him promise to take   
good care of Ranma until he got back.   
Genma vanished with the cash before the train was even fully pulled   
out of the station.   
Ranma sighed, and the two year old began his journey home. Right now   
Genma would be so ecstatic at having so much money that he would   
immediately go out and get drunk, not even noticing he'd forgotten the   
little child he was supposed to be taking care of.   
Ranma got home and let himself in by a window. He sat down with a   
pen and notepad and began to calculate.   
First he looked over the paid bills, neatly filed by his father.   
Projecting that over the months they'd both be gone, and estimating from   
that how much cash he'd given Genma.   
Then he did a quick cost calculation, judging how much sake and   
gambling that would buy Genma, at a slightly better brand than he   
usually bought (to celebrate) and subtracting 40% for incidentals. Like   
fines, overtipping, getting mugged when he was too drunk to defend   
himself, and general recklessness.   
Ranma looked at the final figure. It was time. This number was how   
long it would take Genma to spend himself broke, realize that he had   
wasted everything, and come back to the house. At first he would tell   
himself it was to take care of the boy, but then he would ask himself   
how he would do that without money, then he would see the TV set. Genma   
would then strip the house of everything he could sell, pawn or trade,   
all the while telling himself how the boy's parents would excuse him,   
once he had come to his senses and done his responsibility.   
But once sold that would look like an *awful* lot of money. Surely   
the boy wouldn't be *that* hard to take care of. Genma would be sure he   
could spare a *little* of that, and besides he needed to plan what to   
do, and he always planned best when he'd had a little something.   
And that would be the end of that fortune.   
Ranma did the figures, estimating a fairly bad price for all the   
items Genma would think to steal, and did the math again.   
Because at the end of that time Genma would come back again and the   
next thing to be sold would be either Ranma, or the house.   
Or both.   
Ranma looked at his figures. It didn't take long to spend alot of   
money, the only peace it gave him was the time it would take Genma to   
recover from all that booze.   
It still wasn't much time.   
Two year old Ranma neatly put away the bills. Then he calmly and   
methodically went through the house. He searched in and around all the   
furniture, went through the vacuum cleaner bag, looked through all the   
drawers and cupboards. In the end he had everything tidy and neat, but   
more importantly he had acquired a decent pile of loose change.   
It wasn't nearly enough.   
Ranma sat on a pile of cushions and pondered. His parents had left   
phone numbers, addresses, contact points and emergency numbers. But   
they'd left it all with Genma.   
So what could Ranma do?   
He was too young to get a job, not even 5 yen coins from pulling   
weeds in people's lawns. People would ask where his parents were, and   
when he couldn't produce any they would turn him over to some government   
officer, who would contact the boy's local guardian, who happened to be   
Genma. Genma would be *just* sober enough (or able to fake it) to   
retrieve him, think about how much trouble the boy could be, and in a   
fit of drunken logic Ranma would be parceled off to the nearest and most   
convenient buyer.   
A job was too risky a scheme to even contemplate.   
Ranma thought seriously. Whom could he contact? Ukyo and her father   
could run a restaurant. They could support him and her dad could defend   
him. But could he even find them? And would they even listen? He didn't   
even know them here. They wasn't supposed to meet for another four   
years.   
Could Kodachi or Kuno help him? No, their family had money, but   
their father was almost as bad as Genma. They'd let him in, but Ranma   
would just be added to the abuse list. Abuse that would eventually   
shatter the childrens' minds.   
Whom did that leave? Nabiki? She was good at math, but it was all   
she could do to support a home at seventeen. At three he wouldn't' even   
ask. She was smart but not *that* smart.   
Soun and Kimiko, Nabiki's parents? No, Soun was Genma's best friend.   
His wife might say something, but at best it would turn out that Ranma   
would be saved, not his parent's house.   
Little boy Ranma had climbed up on the bathroom counter and put both   
tiny hands against the mirror. "Belldandy, are you in there?" He'd asked   
seriously.   
There had been no answer, and he'd waited for hours.   
Ranma slid down off the pile of cushions. That left only one person.   
He took out a fresh sheet of paper and began carefully forming his   
words. Two year old hands are clumsy, without enough bone to really hold   
the pen right, so he took extra care.   
Little boy Ranma composed a letter to the only person he knew who   
could handle this, and might believe him.   
He wrote in fluent Chinese, Amazon dialect. 

"Cologne,   
My name is Ranma Saotome. I am two years old. I have been training   
in the martial arts all my life, and am the strongest of my generation.   
If you have a great granddaughter, and that great granddaughter is also   
two years old (she might be named Shampoo) I would challenge her   
according to Amazon law.   
If I win you have to *promise* to help me save my mother's home." 

He included his home address as the place of meeting, then sought   
out where his mother kept her stamps. He also wrote other letters, this   
time to local companies, asking them to turn off the electricity, gas   
and phone.   
He wouldn't be needing them, and he had to save what he could to   
meet the next mortgage payment. He had to survive until Cologne got   
there, if she did.   
Then young Ranma got to work. 

Ranma poured himself another okanomiyaki, using the last of the   
batter. Power was going to be turned off today and he'd wanted to get   
the last use out of the griddle.   
He'd rekeyed all the locks, secured every window and door, and   
bolted closed the shutters. He'd even removed Genma's name from the   
people who could access his family's bank account.   
There had been four withdrawals in the last day, none of them by his   
parents.   
So that was set. He'd reduced all he could the damage Genma was   
doing to them. Ranma left a basement window unlocked, one that he could   
move through easily but that Genma could never navigate, left a note   
explaining everything that he had done in case his parent's returned,   
and slipped out.   
On the front door was a wooden plaque, written in Chinese. It told   
Cologne (and anyone else who could read it) that "If I am not here,   
please seek me at the Tendo dojo" and gave directions. It was signed   
Ranma Saotome. 

He hope this worked.   
Kimiko hadn't aged a day. Which was understandable seeing as how   
he'd lost fourteen of them somewhere. She *should* be looking young.   
Ranma approached the mother and three daughters playing in the park.   
Akane was pouring dirt from a spoon, then scooping it up and pouring it   
out again, Nabiki was watching bugs, and Kasumi was playing on the   
swings, with her mother to help her.   
Ranma made double sure that he looked sufficiently bedraggled.   
He went up to the happy young mother and tugged on her skirt.   
"Excuse me," he asked, with just the right catch in his voice. Kimiko   
stopped pushing her daughter and looked down. Concern instantly mapped   
her features.   
She knelt down beside him, Kasumi got of the swing and came as well.   
"Little boy! What's happened? You look all lost. Where are your   
parents?"   
Ranma sniffled, but kept his chin up bravely.   
"Are you Mrs. Tendo?"   
She nodded, stunned by the question.   
"I'm Ranma Saotome. My parents left. A man named Genma was supposed   
to take care of me. I haven't seen him in days. Do you know where to   
find him?"   
Endangering children does not earn a woman's good graces.   
In fact, there are few things that can earn a woman's outrage like   
finding a child in such a state. That the child, hardly a toddler,   
seemed to be dealing with it so well could only made it worse for the   
man to inflict it.   
Kimiko Tendo lifted the young boy and ushered in her own little   
flock. "Come girls, we're going home. You're father has some explaining   
to do about that friend of his." 

Soun had the misfortune not to have asked his friend where he'd   
gotten that money they'd been drinking on.   
Kimiko could do a dragon head that made Soun's demon head weep tears   
of shame. Even Happosai fled in mortal terror of it.   
Kimiko put Ranma in a low sink, shucking off her own robe. "The   
*NERVE* of that man! The brazen, selfish... and Soun was at it with him!   
Why..."   
She cooled off some of her own steam, calming herself as she washed   
the boy. "And you've borne up under it so bravely, too. Tell me, how old   
are you?"   
Ranma lifted his arms so Kimiko could wash his sides. "I just had my   
second birthday the day before my parents left."   
Kimiko froze into immobility, her eyelid twitching. Shaking herself   
she resumed the first bath he'd had in nearly a week. "You seem *very*   
advanced for your age. Have you been talking long?"   
Ranma shook his head. He'd freak her out if she knew the real truth. 

Kimiko finished washing and rinsing him. "Now would you like to play   
in the tub?"   
He nodded.   
"Do you need to go potty first?"   
He shook his head.   
She put him in and, while she was at it, started washing Akane and   
Nabiki as well. Kasumi was there to serve as crowd control.   
Ranma discovered that he *did* need to go. Seeing how much a handful   
the Tendo sisters were, he crawled out of the tub, made use of the   
toilet, cleaned himself, and got back in.   
Kimiko had this huge bead of sweat on the back of her head, but her   
wiggling children prevented any more reaction than this.   
"Potty trained already? You must have a *wonderful* mother."   
Ranma turned on the cute factor. "She's alot like you."   
Kimiko tried not to be *too* pleased with the praise. Children said   
such darling things. She put Akane in the tub with him.   
Akane hit him with a tiny toy mallet.   
Ranma was doing this for purely practical reasons. Two year olds are   
just not physically capable of caring for themselves. It took him   
enormous time to do simple tasks he could perform in the middle of a   
flying leap before. Even opening a door was a major effort.   
He needed someone to take care of him, and the only someone   
available was Mrs. Tendo.   
But there was daily care, and there was the mortgage. Kimiko was not   
rich, nor was her family, and Genma had spent the mortgage money. Or at   
least he had gotten away with it when he ran. If Happosai was with them   
there was no chance of it being returned.   
Nabiki joined them in the bath. Her favorite toy seemed to be a   
large sponge. She would wring it out, float it on the water so she could   
watch it sink, then wring it out again. Or she would wave her arms and   
splash with it.   
There are reasons why kids do these things. They are learning how   
the world works. Their play is just one big endless science experiment,   
at least until they get on with important stuff.   
But Ranma had already learned all that stuff. In fact, many, many   
times. So he got out and helped Kasumi wash her hair.   
Kasumi seemed surprised by this assistance, but allowed the little   
cherub to brush and comb while she scrubbed.   
"Are you *sure* you're not older, Ranma dear?" Kimiko asked,   
slipping into the bath with her daughters.   
He nodded firmly.   
"Oh." Kimiko said, wondering what kind of mother could produce such   
a well behaved, brave little boy as this one. She got the impression   
that Nodoka was either some kind of super mom, or very, very lucky. 

To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes:   
Heh. Well, I'm still doing it. I really *do* intend for this to have   
a definite end somewhere, but I just *had* to explore this little side   
note of Ranma's character. And besides, the more material I have to work   
with, the more you'll be able to read before I wind this up.   
So tolerate my universe hopping, okay? 

Just so everyone is clear:   
We have Universe A, the true origin of Ranma. It is as close to   
correct as I feel like making it. I actually *do* make an effort, I just   
don't agonize over it.   
We have Universe B, Ranma's true home, and where he spends most of   
his time. It is as wildly inaccurate as amuses me.   
We leave this part with Ranma stuck in Random Universe 1. None of   
the Random universes will ever be revisited. The only places our Ranma   
will go more than once are Universes A and B. 

Bear with me. Dealing with new situations and problems is what this   
Ranma does best. I found my muse leaving me when I left him in place for   
too long. So he will hop around as seemeth me good, always returning to   
home, where we will gradually get to all those things you have been   
pestering me about. 

Brief explanation of Random Universe 1, just to control our confusion.   
The negaverse general flung Ranma *out* of universe B, and triggered   
the Destiny Ring to activate at landing. So Ranma got flung at random,   
and then the ring wished him small, also at random.   
Ranma still has alot of learning to do before I get to the happy   
ending. 

How did Mercury know about Saturn when `officially' she hadn't   
activated yet? Well, all that studying can't *just* be about school, you   
know.   
Scout Power Assemble can pull Pluto a short distance through time,   
or even call a Scout near her activation time. So Ranko, as Sailor   
Earth, got both Saturn and Pluto in part five even though neither had   
officially activated yet.   
Makes things easier on me, the writer. 

Anyone attempting to correct my mis-usage of Japanese endings (like   
-san, just as an example) will have French mispronounced at them.   
Mercy Buckets. 


	7. 7

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Seven   
Weirder and Weirder 

by Jared Ornstead   


Insert Stolen Disclaimer here. 

************************************************ 

Here we go again... 

Oh, yeah. Slight lemon scent.   
We know something happens, but it's kept off-screen and we are spared   
knowing the details. 

*****   
Universe B, Home Universe 

Cologne had never expected this to happen.   
They had come to Japan seeking husbands for the young girls of the   
village, to bring back warriors who could assist in the skirmishes   
brewing between their tribe and the Chinese government. They had heard   
tales of a man using an Amazon power, and had sought him out with intent   
to execute the law.   
They had stalked him, no easy thing as he moved with the fleetness   
of the wind. So they had set a trap.   
Before that trap could be sprung they had seen him attacked by tanks   
and air vehicles and even larger war machines. More advanced and   
powerful relatives of the very devices they most feared would be brought   
upon their homes by the People's Army.   
And Ranma had defeated them all in titanic and mighty battle.   
Cologne had not expected to find *any* warrior of this caliber, she   
was sure not many existed, or ever had. They'd spend weeks challenging   
dojos and kendo clubs, seeking in vain for warriors of moderate stature.   
A special dispensation had even been issued to *deliberately* lose to   
modest warriors if no great ones could be found.   
They had found a man beyond great.   
Tanks and war machines threatened her village, and she had just   
found a man proven able to defeat those things. Cologne had even   
considered handing over leadership of the tribe to get this young   
warrior a part of them. A strong but stupid male could have been   
manipulated by subtle words and suggestion, made to think things were   
his own ideas.   
And none of it turned out to be necessary.   
Of all the games Kami-sama had ever played upon her, this had to be   
the richest! A warrior of vast skills, a grandmaster of their own craft!   
(A thing she'd observed even before he declared it) Well versed in their   
ways, even in their law. The boy was practically a member of the tribe   
already. All that had remained was to bring him in officially, and that   
too had been provided by the spirits. A truly perfect catch. The only   
thing that could possibly make it better was if he could already farm.   
Well, and if Shampoo could catch him long enough to be defeated by   
him. 

*****   
Random Universe 1 

Ranma hung by his toes upside down as he retrieved his mail from the   
box at his home. Clutching the raft of letters to his small chest he let   
himself fall and bounced to a stop on his bare feet.   
A strain, but one he could live with.   
Picking up a short stick, he hopped two feet in the air and slapped   
closed the door of the box with the end of it. Slinging his stick into   
bushes as he left he trotted over to the library, which had a big   
well-lit table where Nabiki wouldn't spill juice over his mail.   
Nabiki could spill juice over the inside of a locked safe.   
It was a game with her, and trying to keep things away from her only   
brought out that fierce, problem solving instinct that would later mark   
her school years. He had actually witness her climb atop a fridge with a   
juice carton in one hand, just to turn a postcard grape colored. No   
paper was safe.   
This tiny, trotting bundle of letters with two legs crossed roads   
with infuriating short lights, but managed to reach the library without   
being killed or maimed. He examined his mail.   
Not bad. Two magazines had run the articles he'd written, the art   
curator was interested in the two-year old artist who had done all these   
paintings (he'd been forever hearing about how "my two year old could do   
that" but when a two-year old actually submitted something it turned out   
to be a credible landscape and a couple of portraits) the newspaper was   
sending a reporter by on Thursday and the local radio station had agree   
to play his record if he could get it to them by Wednesday latest.   
Which, taken together, should cover the next couple of months on the   
house. If he was lucky.   
If not, he'd apply for some patents. 

On his way home Ranma passed under a fence and shimmied with his   
backpack under a row of bushes. Cutting across this way would save him   
three quarters of an hour and at least one brush with death.   
Unfortunately, Ranma had not figured on the older tough kids who   
were currently occupying his shortcut.   
"Hey, what ya got in the backpack, squirt?"   
"What's a little kid like you doing out, anyway? Are you lost?" The   
older bully taunted in mock sympathy.   
Ranma shook his head. Talking wouldn't endear him to the likes of   
these. He began to back away, but the length of their legs made them a   
heck of alot faster. His attempt to get away merely amused them.   
What they probably wanted was to tousle him a little and make him   
cry, which he was in no mood to let them do. He and Akane were due for a   
photo shoot later that day for baby products. No bruises were allowed.   
With a sigh of resignation he lifted his hands before him, palms   
glowing.   
"Fierce Tiger Ball, Attack!"   
A small blue ball of energy whizzed forth from his hands, streaking   
between the older kids and tossing them aside in the wind of its   
passage. The building behind the two toughs was reduced to ash and a   
tumbling ruin with a shuddering roar. The bullies grimaced in terror.   
"Man! It's some kinda alien monster!"   
"I'm getting outta here!" Both boys ran away.   
Ranma shrugged his backpack and kept walking. 

The last major intersection before getting to the   
out-of-main-traffic residential streets around the Tendo place was a   
killer. It was one of those places where traffic was a little lighter,   
heavy but not congested. Which meant that everybody went fast and was in   
no mood to wait around.   
Ranma jumped up and tagged the pedestrian walk button. He obediently   
waited for his light. Pumping his little legs to get out of the kill   
zone he saw, out of the corner of his eye, that a big van was making a   
rocketing right turn right across him.   
No help for it.   
He wasn't fast and a jump would only splash him on the windshield,   
not get him over or around the vehicle.   
"Breaking Point!"   
The driver of the van swiftly became a projectile pedestrian as his   
vehicle disintegrated out from around him. Tiny shards of metal and   
glass rained down across the intersection, which was not unusual for   
certain parts of Tokyo, so the drivers paid it little heed except in   
their relief that there was not enough of a wreck to slow traffic. 

The children were out in the Tendo yard, playing in front of the   
dojo, when the Amazons came.   
There were dozens of them, armed with every assortment of martial   
art weapon imaginable, and dressed in outlandish garb of a multitude of   
hues and patterns. They appeared on the wall of the compound, and the   
flock of them perched there, looking down in at the children.   
Kimiko emerged from the house with a naginata. "What do you want   
with us?" She asked the intruders warily. Soun had not returned, and for   
weeks she had been the sole protector of the house.   
Cologne, perched on the end of her staff, jumped down and addressed   
the woman.   
"Well, hello young one. My tribe received a formal letter of   
challenge from a boy calling himself Ranma Saotome. We have come in   
answer to it, and to learn how one so little learned so much about us."   
Kimiko looked back over her shoulder at Ranma, dressed in a hand me   
down top from Nabiki and one of Akane's jumpsuits. He'd fit in so   
seamlessly that she now regarded him as her own.   
Almost.   
There were those letters and things arriving wanting to give her   
money to have photos taken of her children endorsing one product or   
other. She was still trying to explain that.   
Kimiko had wondered where these strange events started, and if the   
child was a part or a result of them. But either way she realized that   
she had grown to love him as one of her own.   
He spoke. "I am Ranma Saotome, and I did send you a letter of   
challenge."   
Cologne laid aside her staff and got a look at the boy. "My, my   
sonny-boy. You really *are* a young one, aren't you? At first my tribe   
would not believe it, that one so young would be able to write that   
note. That's why there are so many witnesses. But I was curious. And I   
must admit, even I didn't *really* expect you to be two years old."   
Ranma bowed to her, and noticed that for the first time that he   
could ever recall he stood on a level with her, looking her straight in   
the eye.   
"My mother gave me my second birthday party, only a day before I   
sent you that letter."   
Kimiko was looking between them. "Son, *did* you send a letter? You   
know how to write?"   
Cologne looked up at her. "In fluent Chinese, in the regional   
dialect of our tribe, which not more than a few hundred people in this   
world know. I must admit I didn't expect to receive a letter written in   
it, much less from one so small. So, are *you* his mother?"   
Kimiko shook herself, but it didn't help lift her daze. "No. I'm   
just taking care of Ranma. His parents are traveling and I'm afraid that   
a friend of my husband's left him out to starve. I've never met his   
mother but she must be amazing to be able to teach her son so well. Are   
you *sure* he can write?"   
In answer Ranma took a stick and scratched out on the ground the   
characters for his mother's name. It was hard, but he wasn't using paper   
so he didn't have to be neat.   
Kimiko fainted.   
Two Amazons seized her up, catching her before she fell and draping   
her not unkindly over the grass. Then, because they were Amazons, they   
put her blade staff back in her unconscious hands.   
Civilized people are careful to let their neighbors remain decent   
and at ease, and to the Amazons weapons are just another part of one's   
daily wear. It would be immodest and improper for a lady to be without   
them.   
"Well, boy. You are amazing. So, just to scratch an old woman's itch   
to be curious, why did you call on us?" Cologne asked.   
The rest of the Amazons were relaxing in the yard, looking on or   
sharpening weapons, generally at ease. Some were even playing with the   
Tendo daughters.   
Ranma found a lap to sit in. They were the most comfortable   
furniture around, he'd discovered. He explained about being left with   
Genma, and how the man had stolen all the money he was supposed to live   
on. He mentioned his need to keep his family home. Then he went on to   
explain that he was a martial artist, and he knew about the Amazon law.   
"And just *how* do you know about our laws, child?" Cologne asked.   
"You taught me." He replied seriously.   
Cologne raised an eyebrow. He could see that he was being asked to   
say more. The demand was even a reasonable one.   
"I have dreams." He explained. "And in my dreams I'm an old man,   
almost sixteen. And I fight with Shampoo and you teach me."   
"Hmm, and just what does this Shampoo look like?" Cologne asked.   
Ranma looked around himself. "Like her." He said, pointing to a   
woman with long green hair. "Except Shampoo's hair is purple and she   
turns into a cat when she gets wet. I think she has a Jusenkyo curse."   
Cologne met several skeptical eyes, triumphantly. "Well, the lad has   
pointed out my granddaughter Perfume, who is indeed the mother of a   
purple haired girl. A girl, my great granddaughter, whose name is   
Shampoo. He also knows more about our ways than any common outsider. Are   
there any who *still* object to this match?"   
Surprisingly, it was Perfume. Holding fiercely onto her daughter,   
she asked. "And just how do we know this is not some demon, or spirit in   
a child's body? Should we not first examine the boy and see whether his   
knowledge is natural?"   
Attention refocused on Ranma.   
He stood there looking cute and puzzled.   
Cologne grew wise. "Now, sonny-boy, even *you* can't hide that   
there's something unnatural about you. You're far too skilled and wily   
for a child twice your age, and with too much knowledge for man a dozen   
times that. The steps you've had to take to get us here revealed that.   
So why don't you drop this charade and tell us your real origin?"   
Ranma put tiny hands on equally tiny hips. "Oh, I *started*   
perfectly normal. But that was a long time ago. My first memories are of   
a time when I *was* sixteen, having grown up normally and been trained   
in the martial arts, just as I've told you. I went on a training trip   
through China, where I met many of you and defeated Shampoo in a   
tournament. So she chased me forever afterward trying to enforce the   
marriage contract.   
"Then the master who'd trained my father came by. It turned out he   
had a magic mirror he'd stolen from your village a long time ago, a   
mirror that let people travel through time. Well, Cologne, who'd come to   
help her great granddaughter claim me, fought him for the mirror and it   
broke. But the silly old man just reassembled it, and when we tried to   
use it after that it flung me into another dimension.   
"*There* I got ahold of a Destiny Ring, only I had no idea what it   
*did* until I was a couple of lifetimes old. I *finally* had a life   
where I'd grown up in your village, and got great grandmother here to   
explain it. She even showed me the techniques that allow me to keep a   
little more of myself across the realities, so I don't have to   
continually retrain in skills I've lost. I was just settling down, after   
who knows how many intolerable lives, and then this super-powered bad   
guy leaps out of the bushes at my mom's house and blasts me out of that   
universe.   
"The next thing I know I'm two years old and an evil man is making   
off with the money my parents trusted him with. So I *started* perfectly   
normal. But I just don't have the liberty of being a kid right now. I   
had to find a way to save my family's home."   
Even Amazons can be stunned by some things.   
The first question was typically a ridiculous one. Perfume asked it.   
"Why should my grandmother aid Shampoo? As her mother it should be *my*   
duty."   
Ranma scuffed the dirt with his the toe of shoe, a pair Kimiko had   
bought for him. "You died fighting the Musk dynasty, killed in an ambush   
by the ford of whispering stones. That happened in the summer when   
Shampoo was four years old. You and four others died before you even   
knew what hit you."   
Perfume gulped.   
Even Cologne was impressed. "I'm tempted to believe your story,   
sonny-boy. Just what else can you tell us?"   
He told them lots of things. Some of the Amazons set up a firepit   
and roasted a meal, others contained the area, then moved inside the   
house as dark fell. They put Kimiko to bed, Cologne using a light touch   
to insure that she stayed asleep for the evening. The Amazon children   
and the Tendo daughters were allowed to play, but without any rough   
stuff.   
On either side. Akane was mallet happy even as a child.   
Ranma finished after a time. He had alot of knowledge but very   
little of it was specific to the Amazons. He could tell them about a few   
battles, a few of their enemy's weaknesses, and some lost treasures, but   
not much else.   
And he remembered to stress that realities were different, that   
there might be changes that would invalidate any of his remembered tips. 

"Well, I *am* impressed." Cologne chuckled when it was over. "Your   
memory of things past is accurate, so far as I have knowledge. Which   
leads me to believe the rest of your story is true. If even a part of   
this information you've given us is correct then we will owe you a great   
debt, and gain substantial advantage over our enemies. So child, I'm in   
a generous mood. It would be unfair to my granddaughter and her daughter   
to allow your challenge fight with her now. But I can suggest an end to   
your problem."   
Ranma watched her earnestly, but was not so foolish that he allowed   
himself to be vulnerable.   
"This is not your home reality, that much is obvious. And so far you   
have only used the bracelet here once, without a profound effect on our   
past, merely putting you back in it. Whoever did this to you does not   
understand Destiny Rings very well, or dimensional travel. When people   
have a strong home universe they return to it like a boomerang. In   
fourteen years a gate would have opened up that would have allowed you   
to return to your home. But if we wait then this universe will be   
without a Ranma, and I'm beginning to think that a Ranma Saotome is a   
very good thing for a universe to have. So I propose a deal."   
Ranma was listening.   
"Your reality needs you now. I can help you, but I'll need the   
Destiny Ring to do it." She had expected his reaction, which was bad.   
"Come, sonny-boy. An enemy has already used it against you. If you keep   
it it will be used again. I can phrase a wish that will get you out of   
here in your default body and one step toward home, while still leaving   
us with a Ranma of our own."   
"Only a step?"   
Cologne smiled. "You *are* clever. If you were to stay I'd have to   
marry you to half the girls of our village, just to have a few dozen   
children to remember you by. No, son in law, I can only move you a   
single step, and your aura suggests that you were moved many. But I   
*can* offer you a trade for the item you'll be leaving behind."   
The matriarch reached into a distant pocket of her robes, and   
brought out a wand with a crystal tip. "This was found by one of my   
ancestors many years ago. It is a relic left over from a whole kingdom   
that was destroyed by some evil force. The evil turned against itself   
and was shattered by its own greed for spoils. When they were gone only   
this crystal remained. It was my own great grandmother who mounted it on   
the wand. None of us can use it, it's power is too elusive. But if you   
would like a trade, I can offer it to you."   
As Ranma beheld the device his mind disappeared in a wash of memory.   
He waited minutes before he was able to reply. "Yes, great grandmother.   
I will take that in trade." He pulled the Destiny Ring out of his pocket   
and placed it on the ground, taking the wand in return. "But first let   
me recharge this bracelet for you."   
"Moon Cosmic Power!"   
The Silver Crystal flared with energy, which Ranma directed into the   
Destiny Ring, filling it back up to capacity. Then the light faded,   
leaving only the glowing crystal of the moon kingdom in Ranma's hand.   
He used some residual energy to summon either the moon scepter or   
the crescent moon wand. When neither appeared he assumed they'd been   
destroyed, and used the remainder of the flare to summon his Earth staff   
and place the crystal in its head, a staff which he shrank down to wand   
size and returned to weapon space.   
He was used to people gaping at him by now.   
"That kingdom which died here had survivors in my world. I can use   
this. Thank you." He nodded his two year old head to Cologne. "And don't   
forget my mother's house, or Genma."   
Cologne nodded, very pleased with the lad. "I won't. Are there any   
last words of advise before I cast the spell?"   
He pondered. "The Kuno family usually has two children, both grow up   
to be good warriors, but they'll be driven insane if their parents abuse   
them much longer. Could you save them?"   
Cologne nodded. "I will do that, son in law. Thank you for all   
you've done for us." She began to cast her spell, phrasing a complicated   
wish into the ring. 

*****   
Random Universe 2 

With a swirl of rainbow energy Ranma stepped out of the mists onto a   
grassy field. Correction, make that a well kept cemetery. He swiftly   
checked himself. Every part of him seemed okay, he even had the sword   
that his mother always insisted he carry.   
With that confirmed he began to look around him. It was a pleasant   
place as far as graveyards go. In fact he remembered it. This was the   
place where Kimiko was buried in those realities where disease claimed   
her.   
It was early afternoon, about time for Ukyo's restaurant to be   
opening up, if it existed in this universe. He was just about to head   
off and look when he caught sight of Ucchan herself. She was walking   
with heavy steps, holding a skillet in her hands, her combat spatula   
strapped across her back.   
With a shrug Ranma started towards her.   
Ukyo stopped, she must have caught sight of him, though she didn't   
look up. At her feet was a recent grave, one draped with many mementos.   
It was almost knee deep in bouquets of black roses.   
Aw, man. Had Kuno died? But why was Ucchan upset? Well, maybe she   
liked Kuno. Stranger things had happened.   
Ukyo knelt, still not facing him, putting down a skillet of   
okanomiyaki on the ground. "Here Ran-chan, this is for you. It's your   
favorite."   
Ranma could smell it, it was! He came up behind her and snatched it   
up. "Thanks Ucchan! You really shouldn't have, not that I'm complaining.   
It's delicious!"   
She rounded on him with fury, then dropped her spatula in shock and   
hugged him with enough force to strain his iron ribs. "Ran-chan!"   
He was in no condition to breathe. After a few minutes of this he   
tapped her gently with a finger. She looked up to see his face turning   
blue, and released him with a start. He fell to his knees and began   
breathing.   
"You Jackass! Why didn't you tell me you were alive? Do you *know*   
how much everyone's been worried about you? Here, we've got to get you   
home. Everybody's sick with grief. I hope you had a reason for all   
this."   
"Wait!" He croaked, raising a hand to stop her. But she ignored him,   
hauling him up by that arm, which she draped over her shoulder, wrapping   
her free hand around his waist.   
And he noticed that she was still crying. Dang! She was upset!   
"Ucchan, why are you angry with me?"   
She dropped him, pointing a furious arm toward the grave. "*That's*   
why I'm angry with you, Ranma! How dare you fake your own death like   
that! And where'd you get a body to look so realistic, rob a morgue? I   
*thought* you were honorable."   
He looked at the grave, shocked.   
She noticed his reaction and grew gentler. "Hey, Ran-chan. Didn't   
you fake your death? It's the only explanation I could think of for you   
showing up like that."   
He ambled over to the grave, looking at the headstone. "Ucchan, how   
did I die?"   
She saw how upset he was. "It was just a stupid accident. Something   
that happened all the time. You hit your head on a rock in the Tendo's   
koi pond and never woke up. Did you stage that?"   
He shook his head, and raised his eyes to Ukyo with tear streaked   
cheeks.   
"Hey, what's up? Why are you so upset?" She put her arms around him   
in concern.   
He took a deep breath. "Ucchan, I'm Ranma. But I'm not *your* Ranma,   
I'm *a* Ranma. I grew up in a different universe. Some guy cast a spell   
on me that flung me here. I was just trying to get back. And now I find   
out all this has happened."   
Her voice quivered. "You mean, you really *did* die?"   
Ranma was looking at the grave. "Looks like it."   
Suddenly she was quivering in his arms, needing to be held. He   
obliged her, feeling a little queasy himself. While they were thus   
occupied a memory came to him.   
"Hey, Ucchan?"   
"Yeah Ran-chan?"   
"I think I can do something. Can you help?"   
"I don't think I'm up to it, Ran-chan. Can we go somewhere where we   
can sit down? For some reason I'm starving and can't bear the thought of   
cooking."   
"Is the Cat Cafe open?"   
"Should be, they weren't going to leave for China for another week   
yet."   
"Let's call them. Ask them to meet us at the Tendo dojo. I don't   
relish going through this explanation more than once."   
"Okay." 

A trembling Ukyo knocked at the door of the Tendo home. Kasumi let   
her in, only an expert being able to tell how drawn and weary the eldest   
Tendo girl was. To the ordinary eye she was as bright and angelic as   
ever.   
Ukyo went into the parlor, seeing the whole household scattered   
around haphazardly. "Hey, gang. I called Shampoo and her grandmother to   
come over."   
Nabiki was droll enough to be harsh. "And why did you do that? And   
for that matter what are *you* doing here?"   
"Something really interesting happened to me at the cemetery." Ukyo   
replied without ire, sitting down.   
"Kodachi dragged off by the police again? You'd think she'd at least   
get a *permit* for that statue she keeps trying to erect over Ranma."   
Half the family winced at the first name, they all showed misery at   
the second.   
Ukyo didn't reply, joining the uncomfortable silence for the ten   
minutes or so it took for the two Amazons to show up.   
"I assume there was a reason for calling us here?" Cologne asked.   
Ukyo nodded. "Yeah. I saw Ran-chan at the cemetery."   
She was viewed with general disgust. "We *all* go to see Ranma at   
the cemetery, some of us more often than others." Nabiki favored Genma   
with a withering look.   
Ukyo shook herself, regaining some brightness. "No, you don't   
understand. I saw *Ran-chan* at the cemetery. I was dropping off an   
okanomiyaki as an offering and he came up behind me and *ate* it. I   
*saw* him. I *held* him. He even wrote me a letter in case you didn't   
believe me."   
She didn't take it out, the handwriting was too crisp not to cause   
complaints, but in spite of that she was beginning to spark some   
interest in the others.   
"But why would he do that?" Kasumi asked. "If he *is* alive why   
didn't he just come home with you?"   
A ghost of a smile came to Ukyo's lips. "Because when I saw him I   
nearly killed him. First by practically strangling him in a hug, then   
nearly beating his brains out for worrying us."   
Kasumi put a hand to her lips. "Oh, my. I guess he really could   
expect that kind of reaction if he were to come here unannounced."   
Akane was glowing with blue fire. "I'm going to *kill* that jerk!   
How DARE he worry everybody like this! And to think I was actually sorry   
he was GONE!"   
"Your reaction is perfectly natural." Ranma's voice sounded through   
the room. "It is also perfectly misplaced."   
People stared around them wildly. Ranma was not to be found.   
His voice answered them. "No, I am not a ghost. I am using   
Happosai's inter-dimensional warp technique. Don't be afraid, and don't   
be concerned. I will appear in a few moments. I just had to have an   
opportunity to explain before everyone began to jump to conclusions."   
"AND WHAT'S TO EXPLAIN?!" Akane shouted out, getting really mad.   
"You obviously just wanted out of the engagement. Well, **FINE**, as far   
as *I'm* concerned OUR ENGAGEMENT NEVER HAPPENED!!!"   
"I'm sorry to hear that." The voice replied, completely unaffected.   
"But before you make up your mind you may want to hear what happened.   
You see, I *did* die. Or at least the Ranma from this universe is dead.   
I come from an entirely different one. The first I knew of any of this   
was meeting Ukyo in the graveyard."   
There was complete and utter silence.   
"Oh, come now, Saotome." Nabiki challenged. "You expect us to   
believe that?"   
"You may believe it, or you may not, as you wish. But I'll ask you   
this. Do any of you remember your Ranma ever using the inter-dimensional   
warp before? No matter how much he might have benefited from it?"   
Ranma filled in the resulting silence by appearing in the room. He   
was instantly glomped from a dozen different directions, covered up to   
his armpits in family members.   
"Oh, my boy! You've come back to us!" Tendo wept, moistening the   
others and causing a minor flood.   
"Ranma, you *did* come back to us!" Kasumi wept, burying her happy   
and shining face in his neck.   
"I owe you one for this, Saotome." Nabiki had no explanation for   
this, but she suddenly felt an amazing attraction toward this man.   
"Sorry sugar." Ukyo apologized. "I just can't help myself."   
"Ranma! I'm so SORRY for killing you!!!" Akane bawled from the   
prized position around his chest.   
"Shampoo so happy!"   
"Ah, my boy! Your old man is so proud of you. I'm so glad that   
you've come back to carry on the school! Let's hold the wedding this   
afternoon!"   
Ranma had thankfully tensed for this. "That wouldn't be a good idea.   
First of all, in the world I come from you aren't my father, and in the   
second place I'm not going to be here much longer, and in the *third*   
place you wouldn't like whom I choose to marry."   
He gently endured their affection. "Okay. Remember what I said about   
being from another universe? Well I am, and I have to go home soon. I   
can't stay. But I think I *can* do something about giving *your* Ranma   
back to you."   
They stared at him numbly, he obviously wasn't getting through.   
"Shampoo, forgive me." He took a glass of water and tossed it over   
her head. Then picked her up as a cat and began to pet her.   
His audience melted like slag, oozing away from him. Then they   
noticed he wasn't freaking out.   
He scratched Shampoo behind the ears. She purred in wild abandon.   
"I found a cure for the Cat Fist. It took the Xi Fang technique to   
dull the memory and a few hundred exorcism to clean me out, but I'm   
cured." He drew his sword. "Has anyone here seen this blade before? It's   
the Saotome family sword. My mother doesn't let me leave home without   
it, we have a blood feud going on with Kuno. Look, I can spend all   
evening trying to convince you that I'm not *from* this universe. But   
you won't believe me because you *want* me to be your Ranma."   
He sighed, heated a glass of water with his chi and doused Shampoo   
with it. "But I can help you." He continued. "I *may* have the power to   
restore life to the dead. I could probably give your Ranma back to you.   
But I had to ask you all before I gave it a try."   
"But why would we object?" Kasumi asked.   
"And what would you have done if I'd just revived him and gone my   
merry way? Killed him all over again? *He* wouldn't know what had   
happened. And he would be facing all of this without any sort of   
explanation. Would you believe him if he tried? I don't remember being   
very good at explaining things when I was like him."   
Genma tugged at his leg. "Please, Ranma. You've got to be joking.   
Just come back to us. All is forgiven. Why don't you marry Akane and   
continue the school?"   
Ranma tried to tolerate the old man, he failed. "Look Genma, I just   
came from a world where I was two years old. You stole the money *my*   
family needed to survive and left me in the streets. It kind of soured   
me on what *you* want."   
Genma cringed away.   
Ukyo looked at him in wonder. "So he did it to you too, huh?"   
Ranma nodded. "But I posted Cologne a letter and she came and set   
things to rights. Plus I talked Mrs Tendo into taking care of me. Say,   
there's a thought. Kasumi, has your mother passed away?"   
Kasumi nodded a little fearfully.   
Ranma grinned disarmingly. "Okay. When I was last talking with a   
goddess, she told me all healing is based on love. To be honest I don't   
think I love *me* enough to raise one of me from the dead. But you love   
your mother very much, don't you?"   
Kasumi nodded, still shying skittishly.   
He took her gently by the hand. "Then come, Kasumi. Let's go see if   
your mother will listen to a call to return from her grave."   
They migrated to the graveyard. Ranma got the Tendo family arranged   
in a half circle, all concentrating on their lost Kimiko.   
Ranma called out his staff. There was a way Sailor Moon would do   
this, but he wasn't Sailor Moon. He prayed he didn't screw up. Raising   
the staff set with his silver crystal high he called.   
"Moon Eternal Power!"   
Then, as the energy was gathering around him he lowered the staff,   
spinning it in a wide circle and ending with it pointing to the grave.   
"Moon Healing Escalation!"   
A body appeared on the grass, a white body with pale limbs. Then it   
began to breathe.   
Ranma collapsed to the grass. Shampoo and Ukyo propped him up   
between them. "You do miracle." Shampoo observed.   
Ranma tried to nod. It felt like he'd aged a thousand years.   
Something was very wrong with the way he was doing this. Cologne   
appeared before him.   
"I am *very* impressed son in law."   
The Tendos were crying over their lost member, now returned to them.   
Ranma saw and grinned. "They probably won't stop crying for weeks. I   
hope their floor has some waterproofing."   
"We should let them alone." Ukyo observed.   
Ranma smiled weakly. "Yeah, I'm starved. Anyplace we could go and   
eat?"   
He was whisked away to the Cat Cafe. 

They relaxed at the cafe, bowls of ramen in front of them, the   
restaurant closed. Ranma emptied his third bowl.   
"Ah, thank you great grandmother. I needed that."   
"Anything, son in law. But why do you call me that? You're usually   
quite rude." She served him another bowl.   
Ranma began feeding it into the pit. "The me who is rude to you   
hasn't learned to rely on you like I have. In all the lives I've had, in   
all the realities I've visited, no one has been more consistent than   
you. You are always wise and frequently kind, and I've never seen you do   
anything really foolish. You miscalculate, but even when you screw up   
you stay calm about it and just get on with fixing things."   
Ukyo wormed her way under his arm. Shampoo got his other side.   
Ranma gave them a look and gave up eating. His friends needed   
reassurance too badly, so he held them. Actually, he had a problem.   
Using the crystal had left lingering aftereffects in his system. He was   
beginning to have a raging hormone attack.   
"Uh, great grandmother? Do you have anything in your spice cupboard   
to *reduce* passion? It's everything I can do not to leap into bed with   
someone and do the ecchi until we pass out from fatigue."   
Two young maids glittered up at him.   
"That's a perfectly normal reaction to using large amounts of life   
energy, son in law. Why don't you do it? Shampoo would gladly   
accommodate you."   
Ukyo would too for that matter.   
"I gladly would if I were staying. If I were going to *live* here I   
could indeed do that. We'd go upstairs and not come down for weeks. But   
I'm not staying, I can't. And the Ranma of this universe would rightly   
feel betrayed if I did that and left him to deal with the aftermath."   
Cologne spent several minutes appraising him. "You really *have*   
learned honor, son in law. But don't you think he would forgive them?   
After all, he is getting his life out of the bargain."   
Ranma tried to release the two girls, they wouldn't let him. "It   
would be a betrayal to do that and leave them. I cannot take them, and I   
cannot stay. I know me well enough to know how he'd feel. I couldn't   
live with the affection he'd lose for Ukyo and Shampoo because of me."   
Cologne sighed. "Yes, son in law, I have something. I'll be right   
back with it." She gave him a potion, he drank it. Then his eyeballs   
bulged as large as dinner plates.   
"That wasn't nice, great grandmother."   
"I'm sorry, grandson. But you are too good a prize to miss. Once you   
have done what you intend to do you will be obliged to stay."   
Ranma's flesh grew hot to the touch and he began sweating, still he   
forced himself to his feet. "I'm sorry. But there is no way that I can   
remain, even should I wish to. Come along you two. Just, don't touch me.   
I beg of you."   
Ranma limped out of the Cat Cafe, bent nearly double, pain written   
on his features, nearly bursting a blood vessel, leaning on his staff   
for support. The girls followed him a few paces behind. He collapsed   
halfway to the graveyard. "Carry me the rest of the way." He whispered,   
shivering.   
Shampoo put her hands on her hips. "No. Husband take wedding spice.   
Ranma die if not with bride soon. Bring back dead only make worse, and   
no one bring *you* back."   
Ranma lay shivering on the ground. "Then I will die." 

*****   
Universe B, Home Universe 

Blue Iczelion let the little goddess finish making the adjustments   
to her battle armor. "Are you *sure* the device will work right, Skuld?" 

The littlest goddess nodded firmly. "I spent all morning doing the   
calculations. It will take you right to him, wherever he is." She looked   
up in concern. "It's getting back that I'm worried about. I gave you a   
homing beacon, but you still have to jump the universes in between. And   
if you lose him this won't work again."   
"Just try not to de-bug him again when he gets back." Sailor Mars   
said over folded arms.   
"Hey! I *said* I was sorry! How was I to know his alternate universe   
trace wasn't a malfunction?"   
"How indeed?" Urd asked, swirling the pink contents of a small vial. 

"Now Skuld," Belldandy placed a tea tray between them. "She's upset   
over losing her proposed husband. You're trying to help get him back.   
That should make you friends."   
Nobody argued with her, probably for the same reasons that no one   
could argue with Kasumi.   
Skuld stopped looking rebellious, penitently drooping her head   
before returning to the last modification. With a cry of joy she   
finished and slapped the armor segment closed. Ukyo nodded at it and it   
floated up and rejoined her body suit.   
Skuld wiped her brow."That should do it. Come back with him, okay?"   
Blue Iczelion assured the girl with a smile, then faded from   
existence. 

*****   
Random Universe 2 

Ukyo was trapped in the moral dilemma of considering rape of one   
Ranma to save another when an armored woman appeared in the air above   
them. Shampoo hefted bonbori but was stunned by an idle seeming energy   
blast.   
"Wow, Ranma. Every time I come after you you're with another woman.   
Lucky for you she's always me. Hey, what's wrong?" The Iczelion dropped   
out of the sky and landed next to Ranma, looking over him in concern.   
"Shampoo's grandmother fed him a passion spice. He's supposed to die   
unless he, um..." the non-armored Ukyo blushed to her to toes. "Unless   
he has sex with someone. I was just volunteering." Her voice trailed   
off, embarrassed.   
"Thanks. I'll remember that. Where can I take him?"   
"You can take him to my restaurant. There's the spare bedroom."   
"Spare bedroom? Do you mean dad's room?"   
"Huh? My father still lives with my mom back home."   
"Oh. I suppose I should get used to all this. The realities I   
normally go to don't have people in them. They're just a convenient   
place to fight."   
"Will you?"   
"Yeah, I'll take care of Ranma honey. He's already proposed to me,   
so I guess this just means we're jumping the gun a bit. His mother will   
understand." The Iczelion flew off with Ranma clinging to her like a   
drowning victim. 

Cologne prepared the concoction of herbs and magical ingredients,   
carefully stirring a cube of mystical horn as it slowly dissolved.   
She felt this Ranma had given her too much credit on a number of   
things. She was not always wise, in fact she frequently made herself a   
fool, to her own mind at least. As was proved by her miscalculation this   
afternoon.   
She had assumed this Ranma would react as the old one had. The old   
one was stubborn but easily frightened. If he saw all escape cut off but   
a single avenue, he would take that way in spite of his protests.   
Wedding spice required a certain state, one she could never have   
been certain of with the old Ranma, but in the aftereffects of this new   
one's victory it had been easy.   
And he had drunk it, trusting her absolutely.   
Cologne had seen some of that trust die. She could not ever have   
guessed how much that pained her. Ranma had trusted her as much as her   
own granddaughter Shampoo had ever done, and Cologne had fed him a spice   
she'd known would kill him if he failed to give in.   
He'd chosen to die instead.   
And he'd not spoken a word in anger about it.   
He'd even addressed her with respect when he'd known he was dying.   
Calling her by a name she would have paid to hear from him.   
Great grandmother.   
He had known with a surety that she had killed him, and he had   
forgiven her even as he'd realized it. He'd gone off to restore her son   
in law still loving the adopted parent who had delivered him to death.   
Cologne hated herself for it.   
That was why this potion was not for him, nor was it for the woman   
who'd saved him. No, it had taken Ranma's first death in order for her   
to see certain things. Like the reason why his family fought so hard to   
sustain him in an engagement too fraught with anger and hurt feelings to   
succeed. It was not that they cared for the boy and honestly thought it   
was for his best. It was for their own futures. Two fathers who were   
desperate to sustain their dream of a long retirement living off the   
sweat of a dojo run by their offspring.   
Well, Cologne had other remedies for that. If she'd only seen it   
sooner she could have spared them all months of agonizing failures.   
Ranma was the sole hope of too many families. While he was their sole   
hope neither Soun nor Genma would release him.   
But if he were not their sole hope?   
Genma was a fool. And he probably always would be. If he'd wanted a   
dozen arranged marriages for his offspring he should have stopped home   
often enough to have the children to fill them. But now was not too late   
to start.   
With Kimiko restored to the Tendo family it was time they had a son   
of their own. Maybe two or three.   
It wasn't an ideal solution. They would still want to retire and   
live a life a leisure now, not sixteen years from now. But with a new   
crop of children on both sides the Tendo and Saotome families could   
finally afford to let Ranma slip away, carried by the calamities that   
Genma had set in motion.   
And Cologne would always be there for him, helping him, building   
that trust she'd seen in this stranger who had come bearing Ranma's name   
and clothes.   
But a wisdom that had put her to shame.   
She would shelter and solace her Ranma, aid him in his troubles,   
even invoke an unusual tradition and adopt Ukyo as Shampoo's sister.   
Forced to choose between an abusive Akane and two of his friends with a   
caring mentor...   
Patience would win that battle. Time would be on their side, and   
they could afford to choose the role of defending him, winning his   
affections further. Akane would drift off to another suitor, and one of   
those times Ranma would fail to go after her.   
But the time to set that in motion was now. Cologne took the pot off   
the heat, allowing the mixture to cool. There was nothing more to it   
than a powerful fertility formula. She could afford to spice every piece   
of food in the Tendo home with it. They would be eating it for months   
and never know.   
Cologne and Shampoo could even eat with it them. There would be no   
danger. 

An evening passed.   
Ukyo sat on a chair outside her restaurant. She'd pulled out a table   
and was sitting in the sun, enjoying some relaxing time.   
Also she didn't *dare* open the restaurant with all the noise going   
on in there. She spared a glance to the building, dust was shaking out   
of cracks in the mortar. She rolled her eyes and wondered, but squashed   
the thought firmly. It made her blush too much to wonder about it.   
Akane and Kasumi came walking up the street toward her holding   
baskets of something. Akane waved.   
Ukyo waved back, and shot a nervous glance toward her building. It   
seemed to have quieted down. Maybe they wouldn't notice.   
"Hi, you two! What brings you round this way?"   
Akane hefted her basket. "We've brought some things for Ranma.   
Mother is a *great* cook! I can't wait until she starts to teach me."   
Kasumi looked like a soul redeemed. Her face was brighter and her   
expression more animated than Ukyo had ever seen her. Where before she   
had been motherly, now she seemed, well, normal. Like a girl who could   
talk and think about boys and maybe even whisper in class.   
It was a side of Kasumi Ukyo had never seen before. The world didn't   
depend on her being there anymore. Kasumi could relax and be a teenager   
again. Ukyo found an instant liking for her. Maybe they could be   
friends.   
A loud moan issued from the building. Ukyo tried to ignore it. Both   
Tendo girls stared at the source of the sound.   
"Wow. I wonder what's going on in there." Kasumi asked.   
Ukyo found herself going beet red.   
"Yeah, Ukyo. That almost sounded like you."   
Ukyo *swore* to herself that she would invest in some soundproofing   
before she got married.   
Both Tendo girls were looking to her for an explanation. Ukyo took a   
sip of ice water to wet her throat. "Ran-chan, the one from another   
dimension? Well, Cologne fed him some spice that is supposed to kill you   
if you don't, well, you know..."   
Both girls stared in awe toward the source of the sounds as the   
building began to shudder.   
"And you mean?"   
"The Ukyo from *his* dimension is in there saving his life. Look,   
can we talk about this somewhere else? This has been going on since   
yesterday." 

Bright-eyed, cheerful, and not even a bit disheveled Ranma appeared   
at dawn the next day. "Sorry about that." He apologized the baggy-eyed   
and tired native Ukyo down in the kitchen. "I guess we must have kept   
you up."   
He held out a hand, glowing with bright energy. He touched Ukyo and   
the marks of lost sleep disappeared from her.   
She stretched, feeling grateful. "It's alright, Ran-chan. I just   
hope my wedding night will be half as fun."   
He smiled. "I'll give Ranma a few pointers, as a wedding gift to   
you."   
She returned the grin. "Do you really think I'll get him? After all,   
*you* may have your head on straight, but he hardly acts like he does."   
"I'll tell him I'll go blow up the spring of drowned man if he   
doesn't. Either that or threaten to create the spring of drowned   
Happosai and dunk him in it a few times."   
They shared a laugh.   
They cooked, served, and ate breakfast with a background of general   
chit chat. "C'mon. Let's go get Shampoo. The two of you can help me   
bring lover boy back from his tomb."   
Ukyo balked. "Isn't your...?"   
He looked at her seriously. "She's sleeping."   
"Oh." Ukyo sucked in her lip absently. "And you promise?"   
"Yes, I'll let him know how it's done. Shall we go get Shampoo now?" 

Ranma, the native Ukyo, and Shampoo joined him at the grave. He   
*knew* there had to be a better way to do this, but he just couldn't   
think of what that might be, so he repeated the same sequence as before. 

A second Ranma joined them on the grass, pale and weak.   
And naked.   
Multiple-universe Ranma had forgotten that. He took off his shirt   
and gave it to his native double. Ukyo produced a blanket and wrapped   
him in that.   
Blue Iczelion landed next to her Ranma, he leaned into her, wrapping   
an arm around her shoulders. "That didn't go well at *all*." He   
confided.   
Iczelion looked at the small party carrying their newly returned   
loved one away. "Sensors say he's okay. Are you sure?"   
Shirtless Ranma shook his head weakly. "Not him. Me. I'm going to   
have to forbear until I can find an easier way to do this. I've died and   
not felt as weak as I do now. Add to that..."   
Iczelion nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, I know sugar." A grin. "*Believe*   
me, I know."   
He stabilized himself, looking at his companion. "Can I borrow one   
of your shirts? I didn't bring any extras."   
Ukyo nodded, pulling out a blue silk blouse. "Hey, this way you're   
even color coded. I can tell which Ranma is mine without having to   
question him all evening." She leaned back into him. "And I can think of   
*such* better things to do with our time."   
He hugged her, tired but happy. "Well, I may have to adopt this as   
my color of choice." He lifted his eyes to look into hers. "Say, how   
much time have we got?"   
She shrugged. "Belldandy said that it didn't matter. She and the   
other goddesses of time would slow their universe until we returned."   
He nodded. "Good. I made a promise to native Ucchan. Let's spend a   
day here."   


To Be Continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

B - flat, F - sharp, and a little, trilling harp song. 

Many thanks to all my pre-readers, whom I have thoroughly annoyed by   
having no less than half of this bear no resemblance at all to the parts   
they read.   
Fear not, cut parts will get included later, along with corrections   
no less.   
  



	8. 8

jared@netuser.com> 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Eight   
Ranko the Terrible 

by Jared Ornstead 

A Huge Sack of Disclaimers: 

(Author bounding along madly in glee) What A Haul! What A Haul! 

All Oh! My Goddess (Ah! My Goddess, Aa! Megami-sama, whatever)   
characters owned by Kosuke Fujishima. I'm poor, don't sue me. 

The characters portrayed within are not mine, but the property of Akira   
Toriyama and a whole lot of other people who are not me, but who have a   
lot more money than me, so please don't sue me! 

Ranma 1/2 and characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. And all that other   
good stuff. Proper licenses belong to respective properties and   
characters. 

All copyright notices apply. 

The Characters from Tenchi Muyo, were created by Hitoshi Okuda, may his   
wrist never go limp. 

The original Patlabor series was created by Masami Yuuki. This is a   
tribute to it, and thus is not intended to step on his toes or the toes   
of anyone else involved in its production. :) 

Bubble Gum Crisis is copyrighted Artmic Inc. and Youmex, Inc. I am just   
borrowing the characters for a little while, and promise not to bend,   
fold, or staple them - unless I can come up with a good reason to do so.   
I can be contacted at the Email address above. C&C will be accepted, out   
and out flames will result in a Boomer or two being sent after you. 

Medication is available for those who think that characters from all   
these disclaimers will actually appear. 

************************************************ 

What has gone before:   
Go find out. There are archives of all previous parts at   
http://www.tass.org/fanfic in what I hope will soon be their own folder,   
seeing as how I've got a good half dozen parts to this coming. I've been   
trying to put it down but the dang thing's just got too much life in it   
yet.   
It keeps getting the better of me. 

If you're just stumbling new upon this, please read the previous   
chapters to understand anything in this one. There's really too much to   
summarize. If tass is down or unavailable then my friend Albert has   
parts one and two stored on his page at http://www.albertliu.clara.net/   
At least read them.   
And I *promise* to have my own web page soon (tries to hide crossed   
fingers behind back). 

************************************************   
Random Universe 2 

Ranma and Ukyo, both in blue, danced together along the fence tops.   
They did the opening suite to Carmen over high tension wires across the   
business district, managed almost half the songs from Rogers and   
Hammerstein while bouncing and leaping over traffic on it's way to work,   
doing the more powerful love songs from the tops of moving buses...   
Ranma was dampening the noise of traffic and secretly amplifying   
their own voices, coming across with sound stage quality as they danced   
and twirled their love songs across the city.   
Ukyo and he ended up doing a full song over a bustling train station   
packed with commuters. Lines stopped moving and film crews set up as   
Ranma's ability brought a particularly powerful and lovely song their   
way.   
The couple began dancing hip-to-hip on a two-story high railing   
barely an inch wide as they sang. Their world contracting to just each   
other.   
** 

"When the cherry blossom starts to bloom   
meet me here, in my lonely room. 

We'll find a passion-filled fantasy,   
and this time you will stay with me. 

All the misery we knew before   
Stays away, when you are at my door. 

My heart will sing out every time you touch.   
And Oh! You'll love me twice as much! 

(the pair of them leaped to, from, and across moving trains in giddy   
love) 

A new dimension of love!   
A bold adventure waiting for you!   
The true dimension of love!   
A soaring flight, a dazzling view! 

We're going to take it all the way.   
We'll make the dream so totally real!   
See greater wonders by the day.   
Then tell the stars what glorious rapture we feel! 

(They came to rest on reed-thin communications poles, bounding to and   
fro in a gentle ballet, trading caresses and brief kisses in the air) 

Soon, with the star of spring   
we'll know our hearts are changing!   
Leave the hurt behind   
I'll be true and kind   
Be the best thing you'll ever find! 

(Ranma and Ukyo began to dance through unfinished girders, darting about   
like the laws of time and effect had been suspended for just that   
moment, as the sun dawned behind them) 

We will never have to sigh or cry!   
Something told me when I met your eye   
You know that I won't be a butterfly.   
I can't forget you, though I try! 

(a news helicopter nearly drowned out their words. Ranma responded with   
a micro-thin chi blast and soon the noise was gone, the pilot trying to   
land the now-defunct chopper) 

This is destiny, so why pretend?   
Close your eyes and love me once again.   
I'll always be the only one you'll need!   
So go where your deepest longing leads!" 

**   
The duet finished out both verses, then vanished over a line of high   
rises to serenade each other over a lake. 

Nabiki hung up the phone and returned to the family table where the   
TV anchor was still reporting on the strange couple who had disrupted   
nearly a third of the early morning commuters with a Tokyo-wide song and   
dance number.   
"That was the third major recording company to want to get ahold of   
you two." Nabiki dryly informed their inter-dimensional guests.   
Ranma looked uncomfortably at the blue-shirted Ranko who sat at his   
side. She put a trickle of cream into her bowl, slushing it with the   
sweet mash inside.   
"You don't have to look so uncomfortable, Ranma. I'm only passing   
through. I'm here to keep a promise, and I'll be gone before you know   
it."   
Ranma flinched at the mild rebuke. The TV was now showing a clip of   
this other Ranma and the matching Ucchan dancing across a moving   
monorail. The phone rang again and he shook his head. He had no idea how   
to relate to this person who seemed to know his every thought before he   
said it. Kasumi'd offered her hot water and she'd TURNED IT DOWN!   
"Simple," Ranko explained, reading his thoughts. "Your mother is   
sure to come here this morning, and after all that's happened it would   
hurt her terribly not to see the actual you. And you wouldn't want her   
to see *two* of you. There's enough explaining to do already."   
Nabiki returned to the table. "Add another film studio to the list.   
Has anyone ever heard of MGM? They were offering a four movie contract,   
if you're interested."   
Ranma was pondering the justice of what Ranko had said. But it was   
just too weird sitting here next to himself. Not that it helped the way   
she got along with both Ucchan's.   
Besides, this other him seemed so *comfortable* as a girl.   
"I've spent more time as a female than all three Tendo girls have,   
combined. You kind of get used to it after a while. Kasumi, is your   
mother up yet?"   
The eldest Tendo girl was sitting at the table with the rest of the   
group, flipping the pages of a catalog. She looked up and beamed. "Why   
yes, Ranko. She's in the kitchen. Would you like to talk with her?"   
Ranko shook her head, smiling. "I wouldn't want to interrupt your   
father. Has he stopped weeping yet?"   
Kasumi shook her head, and laughed. She had a bright laugh that was   
really quite charming. "No, mother says he'll still going to be at it   
for a week yet. He was crying as they made love last night."   
Nabiki and Akane reacted as if stung at this statement. "Do you have   
to *talk* about it, Kasumi?" Nabiki asked, uncomfortable at the concept. 

"I won't say anything if it bothers you, Nabiki." Kasumi went back   
to her book.   
The phone rang again, Nabiki went and took it off the hook.   
Two Ukyos sat opposite each other, both a little unsure of how they   
should act. The native one had dressed in a skirt and done her hair up   
to impress her Ranma, with the typical lack of results. Ukyo B had opted   
to go for the other side, dressing male to avoid the confusion of people   
mixing them up.   
Ranko squeezed Ukyo-kun's hand. They smiled at each other. A dance   
routine could almost be seen forming in the air between their eyes.   
Nodoka entered and went straight to her son. Genma had made   
explanations to her last night, and they served for little. Still, she   
was dignified and determined and she swept her offspring up in a hug.   
"You are coming home to live with us." Nodoka commanded, brooking no   
argument.   
Ranma could only nod. In the background Ukyo-kun leaned over and   
killed the Television, which had been showing her and Blue Ranma's   
rendition of Poor Wandering One while swinging from Tokyo Tower.   
There were many tearful reunions and things said that brought mother   
and son closer. When she was finally satisfied Nodoka knelt in place   
with Genma at the elongated table.   
Nodoka wiped her eyes. "Well, now there is only the engagement to   
clear up." She leveled a firm but motherly gaze at Akane. "Akane, I   
object to your killing my son. I know that you are very sorry, but that   
doesn't change what you did. Were it not for a wandering sorcerer   
happening by Ranma would be permanently lost to us. On those grounds I   
feel that I must disallow your engagement."   
Akane nodded helplessly, unable to deny the justice of it, but very   
unhappy with the decision anyway.   
Nodoka could see that she would be obeyed, however reluctantly. She   
nodded. "Good. Well, that still leaves three Tendo daughters who could   
fulfill the pact."   
Everyone looked up at her.   
"Three?" They asked with one voice.   
Nodoka nodded brightly. "I know that you've tried to conceal it. But   
it is plain that Ranko is more than a cousin to any of you. Am I right?" 

Those assembled looked to Ranko. She blushed, ducking her head.   
Nodoka needed no more answer than that. She'd suspected for some time   
that Ranko Tendo was Soun's, even if she wasn't born on the proper side   
of the sheets (a euphemism meaning illegitimate). And that could be   
forgiven her. After all, Ranko was such a wonderful girl, truly a sweet   
child.   
Nodoka gave a nod. "Then it's decided. Ranko shall marry Ranma."   
Akane and her sisters jerked as if a needle had just stabbed their   
behinds. Both Ukyos looked stunned. Genma just froze.   
Ranko blushed and giggled. "Auntie Saotome, I already have someone   
that I care about."   
Nodoka blinked.   
"But I thought you loved my son?"   
Blue Ranko suddenly realized that she was *done* doing good deeds   
for the time being. If she didn't do something to stir up a little   
trouble she was going to go crazy. It was all so dull and *predictable!*   
She flung herself onto Ranma. "Oh, Yes! I love him! Ranma is the most   
wonderful half-brother a girl could have!"   
The teacup shattered in Nodoka's hands. Her eyes were wild.   
Genma had pounced on Blue Ranko and was holding her mouth shut by   
dint of hysterical strength. Nodoka gave him a hard glance and he nearly   
fled out the window. Ranko caught him by the tail of his gi. She   
glittered at Nodoka.   
"Yes, I'm afraid you know the shameful truth. Genma is my father.   
I'm the same age as your son. Father kept leaving us to go on these   
`training missions' until my mother finally discovered that he was   
married to other women. We didn't know what to do. But dear uncle Tendo   
was kind enough to take me in. And my mother found a good marriage after   
her annulment. I was even at Father's last wedding, five years ago." She   
frowned thoughtfully. "At least I think it was his last."   
Ukyo-kun was blinking in honest confusion. "He's *your* dad? He said   
he was *my* father."   
Genma was clawing apart walls in his haste to escape. Ranko relented   
and let him go. Nodoka tore after him, her katana ablaze with righteous   
energy.   
As the trail of destructive fury faded from view Ranma turned a   
sweaty gaze on his blue-shirted double. "How did you know about that?   
He'd kept it a secret from *me* until two years ago. Actually, you are   
me. Aren't you?"   
Ranko sipped her cup. "Hadn't a clue. I just made it up. Luckily, it   
turned out to be true or Genma would've lost a whole lot of blood for   
nothing."   
The family was gazing on Ranko with horror.   
"She'll kill him." Nabiki concluded. This was not an exaggeration,   
it was close to fact.   
"Serves him right." Kasumi concluded to everyone's surprise. "He's   
done worse things and gotten away with them. He needs to be on the   
receiving end for once or he'll never learn that he shouldn't do them   
anymore."   
Ranma just sat stunned. 

Later that day Nodoka returned. There was blood on her katana.   
Nobody asked.   
She asked to speak alone with Ranko (Ukyo-kun had wisely departed).   
Ranko was nothing if not good on her feet, and she'd had a whole day   
to prepare for this. The conversation started on a brittle, almost   
hostile note. Nodoka was a woman betrayed and the evidence of her   
husband's unfaithfulness was sitting right before her. But it wasn't   
long before full forgiveness was reached. Blue Ranko was *good*,   
especially at dealing with her own mother.   
Nodoka had even been prompted to admit that she'd thought of Ranko   
as a daughter for a long time, which had prompted the fiance choice.   
Ranko `confessed' that her own mother was dead, and that she'd also come   
to love Mrs. Saotome as her own.   
Nodoka hotly insisted that Ranko *never* use that name again. That   
her family name was Masaki, and she had every intention of reverting to   
it and pretending that Genma had never happened.   
Nevertheless she would be very happy to adopt poor Ranko as her own,   
legitimate daughter.   
After that things became almost cordial. Mr. Panda returned later   
that day with a deep chest wound. Ranko, without consulting the others,   
took him to the vet and thence to the zoo, where she enrolled him in   
their captive breeding program in return for care and a place to keep   
him.   
She'd fix it later but she wanted the old man to sweat while   
recovering from his injuries. 

Ukyo-kun came by again that evening, and confessed (after some   
judicious prompting) that Genma had merely *claimed* to be her father.   
And that he'd been trying to get some food at the time.   
Nodoka sweetened, lowering her hands and the cup she'd been holding.   
"Oh. That *is* good news. I'd been afraid... Well, let's just say I've   
had enough of Genma for one life. I didn't want to learn more of what   
he'd done."   
Blue Ranko glomped her Ucchan. "I'm *so* glad, Ucchan!"   
The movement wasn't lost on Nodoka. "Daughter, you mentioned there   
being someone else. Could it be Ukyo-kun you're in love with?"   
Ranma choked on his tea.   
Ranko glittered and beamed to her new mother. "Well..."   
The two of them burst into song. Ranko tried to serenade her Ukyo,   
but the sometimes iczelion was not to get caught off guard so easily. It   
became a duet and they danced together in the pale moonlight, out on the   
porch and over the yard of the Tendo lawn.   
They danced together slowly even after the music had wound to a   
close. Then Ukyo-kun slid to her knees before Ranko.   
"Ranko, I've loved you for a long time." The two universe travelers   
shared a private smile in front of the gaping relatives. Ranko allowed   
her `boyfriend' to take both her hands in her own. Their eyes met in a   
romantic world of haze. "And so," Ukyo asked. "I'd like to ask. Would   
you please marry me?"   
Ranko bobbed her head in fervent agreement, flinging herself into   
Ukyo's arms. Ukyo-kun began stroking Ranko's hair as they held each   
other.   
The chopsticks fell nervelessly from Ranma's grasp.   
Nodoka was smiling for the young couple. "Well," tears of   
appreciation for the moment spotted her eyes. "Ranko has found someone.   
Now we'll just have to choose a girl to be a fiance for Ranma." 

"Did you have to make such a scene?" Ranma asked Blue Ranko as they   
ran to school together.   
Ranko was not just running but skipping along the fence. "I don't   
know about you, but my plans don't include marrying myself."   
Ranma grimaced. She had a point, but still. "Yeah, but what about   
that proposal stuff? *I'm* gunna be the one who has to deal with it."   
Ranko shrugged, using her book bag to block a pail of water thrown   
at Ranma. "You'll do alright. After all, you were engaged to Ucchan   
anyway."   
"Yeah, but not as a *girl!*"   
"Don't worry about it. It stops your mother from trying to set you   
up with guys. Which would you rather? Sheesh, you get so uptight about   
little things. Haven't you ever stopped to have fun once in a while?   
Don't you play music or anything?"   
Ranma grunted. "No."   
Ranko beamed at him. "And haven't you ever caused just a *little*   
trouble? Being on the receiving end of it is fine, but every so often   
it's so fun to *cause*."   
Ranma scowled, the pair of them leaping over passing traffic to the   
fences on the other side. "I got enough to worry about."   
Ranko shrugged, hurdling a post. "Maybe, but you don't do it very   
well."   
Ranma skidded to a halt, leaping down off the fence. "And what is   
*that* supposed to mean?"   
Ranko jumped down opposite him, hands on her delicate hips. "Just   
what I said. You're content to let your father ruin your life, doing   
what he says and never making a decision of your own. Do you think that   
will *solve* problems?"   
Ranma got angry, thumbing his own chest. "Look, I gotta lot a crap   
to deal with..."   
"I know." Ranko agreed, vaulting back on top of her fence. "But take   
a look at your father's life and ask yourself if you want one just like   
it. You have people who love you, who genuinely care for you, and now   
you have a fifty-fifty chance of being married to Nabiki."   
Ranma shuddered.   
They continued on toward school.   
They were almost to the gates when Ranma spoke again. "Yeah, look. I   
hate to intrude or nuthin, but I think I'm gunna ask my mom to engage me   
to you anyway."   
Blue Ranko screeched to a halt. "WHAT????"   
"Look, you know alot of stuff." Ranma hedged. "And we'll both know   
it's not serious or nuthin. I just want to keep you around for an extra   
couple of weeks. Maybe you could even help me figure out the fiances."   
Ranko was torn.   
"Besides," Ranma added. "You're kinda cute."   
Ranko's eyes flew wide. She shook her head. "This can't be   
happening. C'mon, we're late for school. You haven't thought this   
through at all, have you? We're blood related, *and* I already have   
someone mom approves of. Besides Ranma, you don't want the kind of   
trouble I can cause. You're spoiled by having girls who *like* you. You   
don't even know how painful and manipulative a woman can be."   
Ranma tossed his head. "Can't be nuthin I haven't dealt with   
before."   
Ranko spared him a glance out of the corner of her eye. "Lesson   
number One, Ranma-kun. Do not open your mouth unless you like the taste   
of feet. Obtain some verbal skills before you get yourself killed   
again."   
Ranma was unimpressed. "There ain't nuthin a word can do that I   
can't handle. I'm not like Akane, going to cry every time someone says   
something mean to me."   
Ranko smirked. "You asked for that one, Ranma. I will *not* become   
engaged to you. But I will beat you to a bloody pulp using only a few   
words. Maybe then you'll learn some."   
She sprinted past him into the school, skidding to a halt as a bunch   
of biker gang members roared in around her and pulled up just inside the   
entrance. One of them dismounted, pulling a bokken out of a saddle   
holster.   
Kuno pulled off his biker helmet, tossing it to a subordinate   
dressed, like him, exclusively in black leather and chains. Kuno's hair   
was well oiled and slicked back into a racer cut. Silver sword earrings   
dangled from each each ear.   
"Wassup?"   
Ranko cringed, her plans of mixing trouble for Ranma abandoned. She   
tried to still the horrible creeping feeling. No poetry, no flowers.   
What kind of Kuno *was* this?   
She ran shrieking off into class. 

Ranko leaned against the closed classroom door, breathing hard to   
still her panic. The native Ukyo came up to her wearing a leather jacket   
burned with crossed spatulas on the back.   
She tilted the cap back on her head. "Say, you're pretty shook up.   
Care to tell me what happened?"   
Ranko looked bug-eyed at her. Then screamed. "Why is everyone   
wearing BIKER gear?"   
Ranma wandered in.   
"Well, everyone except *him*." Ranko corrected.   
Nabiki came wandering by, idly slapping a short length of chain   
against her leather boot. "Oh, we started to do this early in the school   
year. At first it wasn't very popular, then the new principal showed   
up."   
"New principal?" Ranko asked, thinking she knew who it was.   
"Sweeto!"   
Ranko batted Happosai out the window before he'd got a glomp on her.   
"So who is this new principal?" She asked Nabiki.   
Nabiki blinked. "You just knocked him out the window."   
"WHAT!?!"   
Nabiki shrugged. "Like I said, the gangs started the leather craze,   
but it became *really* popular when we girls discovered that el hentai   
didn't care for it. Seems it takes him a few extra seconds to get a   
thrill out of it, which is usually enough time to scrape him off."   
Ranko pondered. "That makes sense, I guess. He usually prefers to   
get his thrills groping *cute* girls. It's so hard to look like anything   
but a tramp in black leather that he probably doesn't like it a bit."   
The girls were steaming at Ranko. "What did you say!"   
Ranko shrugged. "That you're ugly dressed that way? Sheesh, you   
would've *thought* you'd have figured out that's why he doesn't glomp   
you."   
"Die Ranma!!!!"   
"No, he's over *there*."   
"Die RANKO!!!" 

They were barely into the second period of the day when Blue Ranko's   
Sailor communicator beeped. She spied a free moment and hung outside the   
window by her toes to answer it.   
"...then Jupiter goes for the safe and... Hey, who are you?!" Serena   
broke off speaking.   
Ranko shrugged for the puzzled faces of the other Scouts in her   
communicator. "Just another Sailor. So what's up?"   
"We are planning our next bank heist." Mercury supplied helpfully.   
Venus bobbed a head glittering with jewelry. "Yeah, so like, what   
skills do ya got? Safe cracking? Disabling security cameras? We need a   
good cat burglar."   
"Hey! I'm not *that* bad!" Objected an upset Mars. She was dressed   
in what seemed to be a close-fitting bodysuit.   
Ranko blinked at the communicator in confusion. "Uh, sure. I do most   
things. But why are you guys doing this?"   
Serena rolled her eyes. "Well, DUH! For the cash, of course, silly.   
Why, do you have a *better* way to make a million bucks?"   
Ranko blinked again. "Several, actually. With our Sailor powers we   
could enter pro sports and each earn five times that in a year. Why? How   
much do you need? What is it for?"   
Several minutes later Ranko pulled herself back in the window,   
rolling her eyes. "Jewelry and dates." She muttered disgustedly.   
Ranma was lounging at his desk. "So when are you gunna beat me up   
with words?" He taunted her as she regained her seat.   
"Lunch." She muttered darkly. 

At lunch Kuno stood staring heroically, in his black leather, at the   
monuments of himself that Sasuke had placed in the school. When Saotome   
was defeated, the pig-tailed girl had fled as well. He could not explain   
it. But his days had been empty for want of her. Then he saw his goddess   
running toward him her arms outstretched in love.   
"Sir Kuno!" She cried.   
Instantly he was beside her, yet somehow hugging a tree instead of   
his one true love. He manfully abandoned it and went to embrace her.   
She held up a hand, stopping him.   
Ranko hid the devious and scheming look in her eyes as she began one   
of the most vile and manipulative songs that she knew. "Take Me to the   
Fair" from Camelot.   
Music began to play. Ranko glittered at Kuno coyishly.   
** 

"Do you recall the other night,   
when I distinctly said you might,   
serve as my escort at the next town fair? 

(though she had never said it, Kuno could suddenly recall it with   
instant clarity.) 

Well,   
I am afraid there's someone who,   
I must invite in place of you,   
someone who plainly is, beyond compare. 

Saotome's power is more tremendous,   
than I have ever seen anywhere.   
And when a man is that stupendous   
he, by right, should take me to the fair." 

**   
At last! The logic of the situation was inescapably clear to Kuno!   
The knave Saotome had yet to face an honest defeat at the noble Kuno's   
hands! Surely the pig-tailed maid could require no less of her champion! 

And the vile culprit chose that moment to enter the school grounds,   
confirming rumors that he had somehow cheated death.   
Apparently he was new to the biker theme, because in the energy of   
the moment he reverted to his classical education. Kuno summoned nearly   
the right words when singing his reply to the pig-tailed one. It was   
flowery and poetic, but boiled down to merely, `I'll kill him.'   
** 

"My Goddess, let me wield sword and smite him!   
Don't refuse me so abruptly, I implore! 

Oh, give me the opportunity to fight him!   
And gore will be divided once more!" 

**   
Ranko was willing to play this for all it was worth, launching into   
the half-sung dialog with all the gleeful venom of a maiden in heat.   
** 

(Ranko, eagerly)   
"You will bash and thrash him?"   
(Kuno, proudly)   
"I will smash and MASH him!" 

"You'll give him trouble?"   
"He will be rubble!" 

"A mighty whack?"   
"His skull will CRACK!" 

(Ranko twittered eagerly, blossoming once again into song) 

"Oh my.   
Then you may take me to the fair,   
if you do all the things you promise.   
If fact my heart should break   
should you not take   
me to the fair!" 

**   
Kuno was all for starting at that moment, but Ranko caught his   
sleeve and brought him with her as she addressed another male.   
"Ryoga-kun?"   
Ryoga turned to see Ranko approaching him. At first his lip curled,   
but then he saw Ranma hanging around puzzled in the background. His eyes   
flashed from boy to girl and to boy again. Then he essayed a tentative   
smile. If this *wasn't* Ranma, then maybe some...girl??...liked him?   
Ranko clasped her hands remorsefully before her skirt and sang the   
second third of the song to Ryoga.   
** 

"I have some rather painful news,   
relative to the subject who's   
to be beside me at the next school ball. 

You were the chosen one, I know.   
But it's tradition it should go,   
to the unquestioned champion, in the hall. 

And I'm convinced that splendid wench-man,   
can easily conquer one and all!   
And besting all our local henchmen,   
he should sit beside me at the ball. 

**   
Ryoga instantly became filled with violent rage. Here, there was a   
girl finally paying attention to HIM and Ranma had to go and SPOIL IT   
ALL!!!   
His reply lacked the poise and style of Kuno's.   
"Die Ranma!!!"   
Ranko caught him inescapably by the elbow before he could begin a   
charge before she was ready to let him. Kuno was at his side in an   
instant, prompting the Lost Boy with his poetic aid.   
** 

(Ryoga, hesitantly, being prompted by Kuno) 

"I beg of you ma'am, withhold your invitation!   
I swear to you this challenge will be met! 

And when I have finished up the operation,   
I will show your Highness how weak the man can get!" 

**   
Ryoga repeated the words by rote and discovered that he agreed with   
them. Taking out his umbrella he shoved it in the air.   
"Yah!"   
Ranko goaded him on.   
** 

(Ranko glittered)   
"You'll pierce right through him?" 

(Ryoga laughed)   
"I'll barbecue him!" 

"A wicked thrust?"   
"He will be dust!" 

"And should I ask?"   
"He'll breathe his LAST!!" 

**   
Ranko would have drawn this out a little further, but the Lost Boy   
was already frothing at the mouth and ready to strangle the native   
Saotome with his bare hands. Ranko sang a bit just to cap it off.   
** 

"Well, Ryoga-kun.   
You may sit by me at the ball,   
If you demolish him in battle!   
In fact I know I'd cry   
were you not by   
me at the ball!" 

**   
Taking both her captives in tow she went to where a startled Mousse   
was hiding. In Shampoo's voice, and speaking Chinese, she sang the final   
third, getting Mouse, if anything, more worked up than the other two.   
They reached such a fervor that the three of them began to sing as a   
trio. Ranma sweated as he watched from the sidelines.   
** 

(trio)   
"Milady, we will put an end to,   
that bally bag of noise and nerves.   
When we do all that we intend to,   
he'll be a plate of French Hors D'ourves!" 

(Ranko)   
"I do applaud your noble goals.   
Now let us see if you achieve them! 

And if you do then you will   
be the three   
who will go,   
to the ball,   
to the show,   
And take me to the fair!" 

** 

Ranko was paring her nails next to a swollen and bruised Ranma in   
the nurse's office.   
"Think of it this way, Ranma-kun. It's the martial arts verbal   
techniques. One can arm, disarm, parry, strike or spar with a foe. And   
you are *completely* vulnerable to it, having not the least defense." 

Kami-sama called several of his daughters to him. They bowed,   
already knowing the topic of discussion.   
"A pair of travelers have entered from another dimension." One   
goddess stated the obvious. "The lines of destiny have been changed."   
Another goddess stepped forward to present her summation to her   
father. "Two have been restored to life by this pair. While this is not   
an evil action, it has had many repercussions. Plus, they are of such   
power that to allow them to remain..."   
She did not conclude, but stepped back.   
Kami-sama raised a hand. "Their intention is good. They shall be   
allowed to do good. See that they are sent on their way, but include a   
provision in their auras that they will be brought back across the   
universes again. There are many places that could use their   
intervention."   
More goddesses nodded. A third stepped forward. "Father, I will send   
thoughts to an agent of our enemy, leading him to confront them. During   
this conflict the universe travelers shall be sent on their way, and   
perhaps they will do us a final favor in their leavetaking."   
"See that it is done." 

After school blue Ranko met her Ukyo under a tree. "So did you talk   
him out of it?" Ukyo asked.   
"Oh, sure, it was easy." Ranko laughed. "After I healed the worst of   
his injuries, that is. Of course, he *is* still stuck going on dates as   
a girl with Kuno, Ryoga and Mousse. But it will get Ranma to watch his   
mouth in the future, I'm sure."   
"Are you?"   
Ranko considered it. "Well, I *guess* I'm not. If I remember right   
from when *I* was like that he'll be stubborn and rather get beaten for   
a few more months than give in." Sigh. "He'd *better* study those   
`Martial Art Verbal Techniques' I gave him. They should make him less of   
a boor. And I dropped off `The Martial Art of Sex' with your native   
double. She'll give it to him when they marry."   
Ukyo giggled. "You *know* she'll study it."   
Ranko laughed. "I'd say she will, and if she *does* Ranma is due to   
enjoy that engagement an *awful* lot. If she reads that book then she'll   
be able to give him a thrill innocently holding his hand!"   
They shared some laughter, then fell asleep on the lawn, under the   
shade. As they did so a small, wizened figure appeared in the shadows,   
seeming to phase into existence.   
"So, these are the two. Nabiki was right about them having power   
enough to trouble me. Unfortunate to lose two such sweet young bodies,   
but they really *are* that powerful, and I don't have the inclination to   
give up my control of the girl's gym and locker room."   
A sigh. "They'll have to go."   
Principal Happosai swiftly took out chalk and traced circles around   
each sleeping girl. He had to pry their hands apart to do it, but he   
soon got them completed. As he sat down to chant Ukyo sensed something   
was wrong and sat up sharply out of her sleep. She tried to cry out but   
no sound left the tracery of glowing lines on the grass around her. She   
beat against the invisible wall but nothing happened. Then she sank out   
of sight as a dimensional portal in the ground drank her in. 

*****   
Some Universe Somewhere, Call it Random 3 

The sky cracked open and spit forth Ukyo in school uniform. She fell   
about thirty feet and flipped to land lightly on the balls of her feet.   
Right in front of the Tendo dojo.   
Ukyo could tell a universe hop when she'd been through one. She   
fumed. It would be minutes before her armor could catch up with her and   
she could charge up into an iczelion.   
But she knew already that there wouldn't be any point. She wouldn't   
be able to find Ran-chan. The universe compass Skuld had given her only   
worked one way, toward home. And her armor's AI wasn't up to anything   
more.   
She leaned against the Tendo wall and sighed with disgust. Caught   
off-guard by a man with a thing for undergarments. How embarrassing. She   
was interrupted in her musings when the front gate opened in the Tendo   
place. A woman emerged and put out a sign advertising they were open for   
business.   
Hmm, maybe she could check in with the locals. Maybe they knew   
something. Ukyo went up to the unfamiliar woman.   
"Excuse me, but could I speak to Kasumi please?" She knew her to be   
Ranma's first fiance and probably at least knew how to find the others.   
Out of all of them together there ought to be at least one that could   
help her.   
The woman blinked at Ukyo. "How do you know that name?" She asked   
kindly.   
Ukyo sized her up. "You're her mother, right? I think I've seen you   
in the pictures that she brought over to Ranma's place. My name's Ukyo.   
What's up?" She extended her hand to be shaken.   
Kimiko could not find a trace of deceit in the young girl before   
her. "You know my daughter?"   
"Sure, we're both marrying into the same family. I guess that makes   
us related, huh? Say, can we go inside? I didn't realize that it was   
summer and I'm wearing my winter underwear. I'm going to die in a few   
more minutes."   
Kimiko allowed the young girl inside, but was not quite ready to   
surrender her questioning. She took Ukyo by both shoulders and looked   
into her eyes. "When did you last see my daughter?"   
Ukyo blinked back. "A couple of days ago, why? Hey, wait a minute!"   
Her face went pale. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I must have messed this up.   
Ranma's used to this, I'm not. I guess this means that I'll be telling   
you alot of strange stuff, huh? Well, to get it over with, I'm from   
another dimension. Some guy cast my husband out of our universe and I   
was just going after him. Now we're split up and it looks like I'll be   
finding my way home alone."   
Ukyo sighed. "I sure hope Ranma can make it home without me. That   
guy who got us was pretty tough."   
Kimiko's eyes swam above a smiling face. She consumed the young girl   
in an all-embracing hug.   
Ukyo didn't have the slightest idea what was going on.   
Kimiko released her, looking down into the girl's eyes. "Now you   
must tell me, Ukyo. You are honest in all you've said? There is a place   
where I have a daughter still living?"   
Ukyo blinked. "Well sure. There's Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane... I know of   
those three just because of some rather unorthodox wedding arrangements.   
For some reason their father wants them all to marry Ranma. Kasumi's the   
only one to agree that I know of."   
Tears and joy greeted her. "Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane... All three of   
them alive! And my husband. But what of me?"   
Ucchan turned her head away, connecting facts. "From what I've   
heard... Well, there's a rather large shrine in their house. And the   
pictures Kasumi has of you are from when she was awfully small. Then, in   
the universe we just came from, they were all alive and you weren't.   
Ranma seemed to think that was normal."   
Kimiko's lips had firmed. "Then there is a place for me there." She   
concluded.   
Ukyo's head snapped up. "What??"   
Kimiko released the young girl, sitting down and motioning for her   
guest to do the same. "My history, what has happened here, is that my   
family died of a mysterious wasting ailment. I have been here alone for   
eight long years. I would give *anything* to see my family again. My   
home, my universe, anything..."   
Kimiko raised a motherly gaze to Ukyo. "If you could help me see   
them again... You would be my own *daughter* if you would do this for   
me! I swear I will treat you as if you were my own. I will be a second   
mother to you, anything you desire. I could even teach you sorcery."   
She motioned to racks and vials of things on the wall. "In eight   
lonely years I've had nothing to do but relive memories. A few illusions   
of my lost children were enough to motivate me to become quite skilled.   
If there's anything you need, anything you desire. I will do it or find   
a way to do it for you."   
Ukyo felt *very* strange, kind of like dizzy. "Thank you, but the   
only thing I want right now is... Um, do you have any food around the   
house? I feel really hungry, but it's like I'm going to throw up."   
Kimiko looked at her quizzically, then broadened into another smile.   
She made a small pass of one hand and whispered some words, then smiled   
again.   
"Yes dear, I do. Pickles and ice cream are *just* the thing for a   
young lady in your condition." Her eyes brightened like they had not in   
far too long. "Oh my. My first hint of family in eight years and already   
there's going to be a grandchild!"   
Ukyo's eyes took up ninety percent of her face. 

*****   
Random Universe 4 

Ranko came to on the floor backstage. One of the stage technicians   
was lifting her up. "Get *up* miss, you're on in less than 30 minutes!"   
Oh, joy.   
Ranko took a peek through the open door of the control booth out of   
which the tech had emerged. Some *serious* equipment, and the monitors   
showing the stage and audience. This was most definitely the BIG time.   
There was a star onstage singing right now, and the amphitheater looked   
fit to hold a quarter of a million people.   
And it was packed.   
Ranko nodded to the man who had helped her. "Thanks, is there a   
place I can review really fast? I need to calm my nerves."   
The tech showed all the tolerance that was normally due skittish   
performers, almost none. He'd help her, they always did, but it was in   
the job description that he roll his eyes and not like it. He assisted   
her to a computer.   
"Everything about your spot should be keyed in here. Go to it."   
Ranko spent half a second examining the board before her, touch   
screen, very advanced. It made windows look like sanscrit tablets, which   
she could *also* read, but still this was easier to use.   
She called up her spot, and shivered as if her seat was electrified.   
There was *nothing!* This was actually tied in to the command sequencer,   
the computers that controlled the lights, the sound, everything. And   
there was not so much as a *keystroke* inputted.   
Ranko cracked her knuckles and addressed the screen. If she'd been   
so lazy as to not submit her act for programming then it was time to   
improvise. She called up the stage capabilities. Good, Greek columns   
could be commanded to rise from the stage floor, that was something she   
could work off of. She entered programming for the stage lights even as,   
on split screen monitor, she reviewed the music files.   
Quite a broad selection.   
Then she noticed that she was wearing a martial arts gi. This would   
*never* do! It was okay for lounge wear but whoever let her NEAR a stage   
is this getup? She called up wardrobe files.   
Bad news.   
Okay, what could she improvise? Her Sailor costume? Out of the   
question. She had no idea what repercussions would be if she did that.   
They might shoot Sailor Scouts on sight.   
She looked over wardrobe again. Okay, if she took a blouse that was   
left from a set from State Fair (white with plenty of ruffles, quite   
cute actually), a few multicolor ribbons to tie around wrists and hair,   
she could add that on top of the white one piece she still had left from   
her fake Sailor costume. Heck, throw in the skirt, why not? She could   
put that on top of some ballet slippers that were also available and add   
lacings of ribbon up her calves.   
It would work, it would be cute, and only the stage hands would know   
how last minute it was. She called for rush delivery of the items.   
So, what would a costume like that be good for? What kind of act?   
Ranko quickly began hitting spots on the input panel, refocusing and   
sequencing lights, adding the music cues...   
In less than no time she was slamming the last few key spots while a   
stagehand was dragging her away from the monitor by the elbow.   
"Come *on* miss!"   
"Right!" Ranko hit the last key and sprang off, beating the stage   
hand to the waiting point to go on and changing clothes in mid-rush. The   
announcer was just beginning to come on as applause for the previous act   
still roared within the stadium.   
Ranko frowned, noticing that the girl who'd been singing was *not*   
the one she'd seen on the monitors. Were they all warm-ups for some big   
act to follow? She couldn't tell, but this seemed more like a high-tech   
vaudeville than a real stage show. What was up?   
The stage hand treated her just like a neophyte, taking her arm and   
explaining slowly. "Now, remember. Just walk out, answer the questions,   
and do your thing." He gave her a light shove and Ranko was walking down   
a long, red carpet.   
The announcer was talking over the speaker system, some suave guy   
that gave her the creeps. "Next in our competition." He called. That   
explained *alot!* This was not a united stage show or concert. It was a   
bunch of people doing separate acts. That explained everything but why   
the audience was so huge, or why the equipment was so high budget.   
All this ran sort of dual-processor as Ranko walked on, listening to   
the man speaking.   
"Is a young girl who visited our island from Nerima Tokyo and   
decided to stay awhile." There was some audience snickering, which Ranko   
couldn't understand. The announcer went on. "She has just celebrated her   
nineteenth birthday, and considers martial arts her life. Please welcome   
miss Ranko Saotome!"   
Ranko ended downstage center, right before a panel of judges.   
Camera's whirred and clicked in the sidelines.   
The center judge looked between her and some papers. "Now, miss   
Ranko. We don't get many warrior maids. Could you please tell the panel   
what your feelings are on the subject of love?"   
Ranko blushed demurely, but turned on a cute glitter. What was going   
on? "Oh, I think love is the most important thing in the world. With a   
generous helping of it any problem can seem less bad, and good things   
just get better!"   
This clearly had not been the answer the judge was expecting, but   
the audience liked it. Ranko began exuding cuteness rays as a self   
defense.   
"Oh." There was some discussion among the judges. "Then could you   
please inform us of how this reflects on your views of martial arts?   
Isn't there some conflict?"   
"Not at all!" Ranko said brightly, using some girlish enthusiasm to   
bolster her position. "You see, the ultimate martial artist should be   
willing to give up anything, even life itself, in pursuit what really   
matters. That requires discipline and self-sacrifice. And sacrifice is   
what love is all about! We give up things we care about to be with   
another person. So the self control taught by a martial art actually   
teaches us to be more caring and better prepared for when we eventually   
marry!"   
There had actually been quite a bit of that in the Amazon lore, they   
just sat on it most of the time. Only the occasional Amazon even looked   
at those scrolls anymore.   
"But how do you justify the time that you spend at it? Isn't it true   
that you spend anywhere from three to four hours a day *just* studying   
martial arts? How does that impact on, say, a job, or a young family?"   
Ranko bobbed cutely, giggling. "Silly. My martial arts practice can   
be *anything* I want it to be. Once you have achieved a certain level of   
skill you can practice martial arts doing laundry or shaving your legs.   
I know of some friends who have developed techniques for fighting based   
on cooking styles or sewing. So, once you get *good* at it everything   
you do takes *less* time. I have *more* time for play or study because I   
know the moves for making chores go quickly."   
"Shaving your legs?" The man seemed confused. "How could that be..." 

Ranko twinkled. "Have you ever done it with a two-handed broadsword   
while in the middle of flying reverse turning kicks? It's been awhile   
since I nicked myself, you know."   
Her legs were evident in their smoothness.   
So what if her `former self' hadn't done it that way? She could if   
she was asked. In fact it was more fun that way.   
The judges conferred. One of them referred to a card. "Well, that   
concludes our questions. You may now go on to your talent, which is:   
Martial Arts Katas."   
Ranko felt sick, but didn't let it show, that would be poor acting.   
Martial Arts Katas. She could do them in her sleep, sometimes did. That   
explained why there were no stage cues in the computer.   
She hated last minute improvising, but she could see that she would   
have to alter her act. Taking a weapon quality ribbon from stuff space   
she snaked it out to grab one of the overheads, using it to swing   
herself out to center stage.   
Vaulting when she released the ribbon, Ranko did a triple barrel   
flip in midair, coming down in a gymnast's presentation stance, right on   
target.   
Cue music.   
Lights focused on Ranko, a blinking rainbow of color appeared in the   
shadows upstage, framing her in an island of light. Good thing she had   
switched the main spots over to auto-follow, otherwise this would have   
been a BIG mess.   
Using her long ribbon she began a simple ribbon dance, weaving   
shapes in the air as she began to sing.   
** 

"D r e a m,   
dream, dream, dream.   
D r e a m,   
dream, dream, dream. 

When I want you,   
in my arms.   
When I want you,   
and all your charms. 

Whenever I want you,   
all I have to do is: 

D r e a m,   
dream, dream, dream. 

(Her body moved fluidly and rhythmically through the moves of the dance   
she had planned out, as breathtaking as such a flawlessly executed   
display could be. But to deviate from her announced plan could   
disqualify her, so she began to take liberties with the moves, fitting   
them to the music even as she disturbed her flawless sphere of flowing   
ribbon dance with darting attack strikes, like forks of lightning out of   
a flowery globe). 

When I feel blue,   
in the night.   
When I need you,   
to hold me tight. 

Whenever I want you,   
all I have to do is: 

D r e a m... 

(She vaulted backwards with a double flip, letting her ribbon spin off   
into darkness. Using the motion to cover the change in music. She landed   
some twenty feet upstage, a minor hop really. Then she discovered that   
several items and breakables had been lain back here by the stage hands,   
probably under curtain while the preceding act had gone on. Well, she   
could make use of them.) 

A new dimension of love!   
A bold adventure waiting for you!   
The true dimension of love!   
A soaring flight, a dazzling view! 

We're going to take it all the way.   
We'll make the dream so totally real!   
See greater wonders by the day.   
Then tell the stars what glorious rapture we feel! 

(in a whirlwind of energy Ranko had tossed a pile of bricks in the air,   
powdering them all with lightning kicks even as she blended in dance   
movements and continued to sing. She leapt *through* a gong and busted a   
stack of cement blocks with a negligent seeming swipe with one foot.) 

Soon, with the star of spring   
we'll know our hearts are changing!   
Leave the hurt behind   
I'll be true and kind   
Be the best thing you'll ever find! 

(A staff blurred around her body, and she incorporated several moves   
from Chinese acrobatics, standing on the end of the staff balanced   
precariously on the floor, swinging her body and legs about as she held   
onto its top, continuing to dance in a sensuous and feline style. Then   
several flips, aerial rolls and back to the ribbon, covering another   
change in music.) 

Darling, just for me can't I wait for you?   
In your heart I wanna make you feel so brand new.   
When you beckon, love comes at your call 

(Two ribbons now, their ends juggling weapons and balls -the heavy kind   
that you might ordinarily stand on to show your balance. The whole   
display complicated enough that even Ranko had to stand still and   
concentrate upon it.) 

It's a love that's meant to be.   
It's in the stars above... 

(Ranko slowed, allowing the tone of the music to mellow her movements.   
She'd meant for this to be a somewhat romantic piece, and allowed that   
tone to filter through once again. Now she danced alone, no ribbons, no   
props, just beauty.) 

Why not fall in love? 

**   
Ranko danced through the purely instrumental parts. The whole thing   
had been fast, too fast. Ranko didn't want her audience to see just a   
blur, which could happen if she let adrenaline cut in. She changed tone   
and style as the next song came on.   
The columns raised out of the floor and Ranko was on them, being   
smooth and demure while casually displaying the poise of an angel. A   
song of bells and soft tones began, while Ranko moved in delicate   
counterpoint to the music over a thirty foot fall to the floor.   
** 

Playing a folk song with his guitar,   
Flashing his bright white, glittering teeth,   
in all my dreams at night,   
I fall in love with him. 

I have this feeling,   
for the first time in my life,   
I feel I can...   
Turn the Earth with my finger. 

(Her arms moved slowly through the softest blocks, blending martial arts   
and dance until one could not be told from the other. She kept this very   
low key so as to build and not distract from the mood she was striving   
for.) 

I feel I can run on the clouds 

(and to the audience it appeared she was doing exactly that) 

I will follow you wherever you go. 

**   
The song terminated early and the columns began to sink once again   
toward the stage floor. Ranko bowed and pretended it was all part of   
what she'd planned. At least the guy on the controls had managed a   
decent cut-off. It had *sounded* like it was in honest truth the end of   
the song, and Ranko played along.   
Actually, it might be that a stage director had thought she'd been   
caught up on the pillars by accident, and had thought to bring her down   
before she broke her neck.   
Well, they were sinking much more slowly than they had risen. Ranko   
jumped from the top of her pillar and rebounded off the sides of several   
others, hopping back and forth like they were tree trunks, ending by a   
grand leap twenty feet taller than the pillars had been and landing in   
perfect counterpoint as the stage reset to normal. She struck a   
triumphant pose.   
The applause were thunderous. They were a tangible force that   
buffeted her. Ranko took it gracefully and allowed herself to be cued   
out. 

The show director, or his assistant, gave her the standard chewing   
out for having changed her program. She endured it penitently, saying   
the proper remorseful things.   
After that one of the hands took her downstairs. It was anything but   
the cramped and overcrowded work area that such places often were. It   
looked as much like a scene from a high class dormitory as anything.   
There were several couches in the hall.   
Ranko was met by a young girl in a pink dress.   
"That was *wonderful!*" The teenager said in a friendly kind of awe.   
She took Ranko to a seat beside her, handing her a cup filled with   
something. "That was nothing like the show you practiced at my uncle's   
house."   
Okay, this girl was her contact here. Which was good because the   
rest of this stuff was pretty unfamiliar.   
Ranko smiled. "I panicked and changed everything at the last minute.   
You'll not believe how nervous I was." She took a sip of whatever was in   
the cup. Blech, coffee. Ranko didn't get her body in the condition she   
kept it by chemical stimulation. She put the cup on a table and forgot   
about it.   
The girl who was her contact was grabbed by one of the show people.   
"Come on, miss. You're the next one up."   
"I'll wait for you here!" Ranko called as the other girl was pulled   
away.   
"Watch me on the monitor!" The teenager pointed to a big screen.   
"Break a leg!" Was the last thing Ranko could say before her   
companion was gone. She turned to the big display. It did indeed show   
the stage. Several of the other girls down here were watching it. Ranko   
leaned back and hauled out a carton of milk from a conveniently placed   
box of iced beverages. It was only a few minutes before the acts changed   
again, bringing on Ranko's young companion.   
"And now, our very own, miss Lynn Minmei!" The announcer called. 

Shortly after came the swimsuit competition. They called everyone   
out in revealing attire that was more or less modest.   
Minmei's was modest. Ranko's was less.   
Minmei wore a normal one piece in a grayish blue. Ranko's was a   
variety of colors and had more frills and touches than real material.   
She looked like she belonged back on Toma's island. In fact it was the   
most attractive swimsuit on stage, and the package it wrapped wasn't   
that bad either.   
Number twenty eight, at the other end of the line from where Minmei   
and Ranko stood, seethed. Her bikini was rainbow fabric and was   
obviously intended to steal the show. But it didn't compare to Ranko's.   
Ranko wondered where she'd gotten her own suit. In fact she wondered   
many things. But with nothing to go on it all seemed sort of trivial.   
She paid attention to the judges.   
It gave her something to focus on.   
Ranko soon had her turn before the announcer who was asking   
questions of all the contestants.   
"So, miss Ranko." The announcer asked. "That was quite an impressive   
kata. Is that standard for your martial art?"   
The microphone was in her face.   
She reacted with maidenly surprise. "Well, I *would* say yes, but   
I'm afraid that would be boasting. However, I do frequently fight to   
music. And the leaps and ribbons are part of the form. It just takes a   
little extra breath control to add the singing to it."   
"If you wouldn't mind telling us, how do you learn to do things like   
that? Is the training difficult?"   
She laughed merrily, relieved the questions were so easy. "You could   
say that."   
"But you don't seem to quite feel that way."   
Ranko twinkled. "Well, the whole philosophy of the art is that   
anything can be improved. I still regard myself as in training. But if   
you mean how hard is it to start, well, a person can do things that   
would surprise them in a very short while."   
The announcer thanked her and she retreated to her post. Steadily   
they worked through the line. It turned out, when they'd gotten that   
far, that the lady on the end in the rainbow swimsuit was some kind of   
movie star. The announcer spent a while doting on her, then they let the   
judges determine the finalists. 

And so Ranko found herself sitting on a chair beside four other   
similarly seated contestants, while the audience decided who was to be   
the winner. Ranko wished she could talk to Minmei, who was also in the   
final five, but there was another woman sitting between them.   
Votes got tallied.   
There was a tense few moments.   
The movie star preened for victory.   
Ranko won. 

The newly crowned Queen of Macross (no official duties, she'd asked)   
tolerated the award ceremony and let everyone dote on her for awhile.   
But when they finally got over with it she went off to her locker,   
feeling as tired as if she'd had to fight with a helicopter again.   
Minmei was waiting for her. Looking very happy for her.   
"Wow! I can't imagine it. My very own best friend, winner of a   
beauty contest!" She clapped her hands in joy.   
Ranko was very tired, she smiled anyway. "You're taking it better   
than that movie star. She's going to appeal based on the `special   
effects' help I received for my talent."   
Minmei was happy in spite of that. "Oh, you'll just have to prove   
that you can do it without any of that. Don't worry. I know you can."   
"Thanks, Minmei."   
"Excuse me." A lady officer, about twenty with long brown hair,   
brushed into the dressing room they shared. Without ceremony she grabbed   
ahold of Ranko's arm and picked up the bag Ranko assumed probably   
belonged to her. "Pardon me, *miss* *macross* but I'd like a word with   
you."   
The lady officer, somewhat upset by something, pulled an unresisting   
Ranko out of the dressing room and down the hall. Ranko was too busy   
examining all the things going on around her to resist as she was taken   
down a pair of corridors and out into the parking garage.   
Ranko was hauled out of the stadium and put into a car with military   
plates. Not knowing what was up she had no idea what to do, so she went   
along. The woman put Ranko in the passenger side and got in the driver's   
seat herself. She started the car with unnecessary acceleration and   
pulled out into traffic.   
"What was all that about, Ranma. You were the one who told me   
yourself that you wanted no part in this. Why did you go and win?"   
Okay, the officer was upset. She knew Ranma, probably better than   
that Minmei girl did, and they were driving somewhere. Ranko's stuff was   
in a bag in the back seat, and she had just won some sort of beauty   
contest.   
Without anything to base it on Ranko still didn't know what was   
going on. She lowered her eyes.   
"I'm sorry."   
The officer looked at her. "I don't want you to be sorry, Ranma. I   
want you to tell me what's going on. That little stunt you pulled could   
have caused us alot of trouble. And don't you care that you could have   
spoiled some girl's chance for a real opportunity?"   
A bad spot, surely. Ever thankful for small favors Ranko discretely   
read the name tag on the woman's uniform.   
"Lisa, I'm sorry. I don't *know* what came over me. I honestly   
wasn't thinking."   
The commander looked at her out of the corner of her eye. She   
hmmphed. "Not thinking, eh?" She sighed. "Yes, that's the Lieutenant   
Ranma Saotome I married."   
Ranko struggled hard not to show any outward sign. Oh, man. This   
just kept getting worse and worse! Acting because she knew it was the   
right thing to do Ranko put her hand out and caressed the forearm of the   
female officer.   
"Not sorry are you?"   
Lisa smiled. "No, I could never be that, darling. It just makes this   
whole charade that much harder for us. It seems that things are getting   
endlessly more complicated. First our marriage had to be a secret so my   
know-it-all admiral of a father didn't bring the world down around our   
ears because he didn't like the handsome young pilot his only daughter   
was foolish enough to fall in love with. Then we get stranded out here   
in space on this battle fortress and suddenly it's so much harder to   
keep everyone sane, much less maintain our secret."   
She pulled into a parking elevator and the car was raised up into a   
stall, the doors raised and they climbed out. Lisa went to a door,   
searching for a key.   
"Your joining the military was the right thing. I'm very proud of   
you for that, darling. But like so much else it just makes things more   
complicated." They entered the dwelling, it looked palatial, but Lisa   
seemed to regard it as normal, throwing her jacket over a sofa.   
Ranko had been looking around. You'd have to be told to know that   
this was a spaceship. There seemed to be enough room for anything and to   
spare. Military bases planetside wouldn't have quarters this big for a   
couple, much less a single officer.   
Lisa was unbuttoning her top.   
"You haven't forgotten your promise, now. Have you Ranma?"   
Ranko feigned ignorance to disguise the real thing. "Well, let's   
see. Was I going to remember to take out the trash or was it something   
to do with the shopping?"   
Lisa laughed, throwing her shirt at Ranko. "No, silly. I arranged   
for you being off duty tonight for a *reason*. Every pilot on ship   
wanted to be at that contest."   
"You're dying for a game of blackjack?"   
"Close. The shower's that way, Ranma. In case you've forgotten."   
Lisa looked at a clock. "We still have an hour before you have to be   
back at bachelor's quarters." 

Ranma lay in his bunk, above his desk in his one room bachelor pad,   
justifying what he had done. He was married, right? So, as far as this   
universe went, that made it okay, right?   
Ranma rolled over. No, it didn't. He knew that. If he'd *been* from   
this universe it would be alright. If this reality wouldn't exist after   
he'd left it then maybe it would be alright. Well, it probably would be. 

He rolled onto his back.   
With the Destiny Ring he was never leaving families or lovers   
behind. The laws of the moment ruled. If he was, in that history,   
married to someone, then it was right, even appropriate.   
But what about when reality didn't change?   
As he lay in bed debating the morality of the issue there came a   
knock at his door. He called for whoever it was to come in.   
A good looking officer poked his head in. "Man, you *must* be sick.   
Every pilot I know was at that party. Oh, well. It's a good thing I   
brought you something." He entered and tossed a few sandwiches on the   
desk, which he followed with a bottle. The commander sat backwards on   
the one chair.   
"Get down here, eat. That's an order." He waved to the sandwiches.   
"Guys at mess say you've been in here all day, only going out to the   
restroom once or twice."   
Ranma obeyed, his military pajamas feeling more than a bit weird on   
him. He sat on the desk and opened a sandwich wrapper. Suddenly reminded   
of its existence, his stomach made its presence known. Sandwiches began   
disappearing swiftly.   
His commander watched him eat. "So do you want to talk about it?"   
Ranma paused in mid-devour. "Talk about what?"   
Roy Fokker (boy was Ranma ever grateful for name tags) played with   
the neck of the bottle. He popped it open, pouring two glasses. "Oh, I   
dunno. Your marriage to Lisa Hayes, maybe? Look, I know you two don't   
get alot of time together, but I had a buddy pull hard duty today to   
cover for your `sick leave.' I was thinking maybe there was something   
you could do in gratitude."   
Ranma lowered his sandwich. "Name it."   
Fokker smiled, clapping the young `pilot' on one pajama clad leg.   
"That's why I like you, Saotome. Ever ready to help a friend. Y'know, it   
just so happens that I've arranged a little date between this guy and   
his girlfriend to help him forget about missing that contest. She's   
waiting for him now. So if you'll hop into your flight gear and get on   
down to Prometheus he'll be able to get the second half of the shift off   
and go on that date. What do you say?"   
Ranma grinned to hide a horrible sinking feeling. "I'd say where's   
my flight suit?"   
The commander popped open his closet and indicated the garment with   
a fine sense of show. "Go to it, kid. And thanks. I'll give Rick a call   
and let him know you're on your way." 

Lisa Hayes rejoined the bridge crew, flushed and with a giddy sense   
of euphoria. She'd not felt this good in a *long* time.   
Claudia Grant taunted her young superior. "Well, that must have been   
some lunch break. Can I have some of what you're having?"   
"At ease, lieutenant." Lisa resumed her station with a smile. The   
radar and communication girls giggled behind her. She pretended not to   
hear them. 

Ranma rode down the lift tube, helmet in the same hand he lifted his   
oxygen supplementation pack with. Fortunately, his computer had proved   
to have decent records. And with military regulations on practically   
everything it had been really easy to look up the official way to wear a   
flight suit.   
A flight suit that also happened to be a lightweight spacesuit.   
Ranma was late, but then he'd also had to check his computer for the   
path to this station. Asking someone how to find a place he supposedly   
went every day would have been a BAD idea.   
He met the pilot he was to be replacing lounging on the outer   
cowling of a twin engine fighter and got a good look at the   
*comfortable* way to wear a flight suit. The pilot hopped down, clapping   
a hand on Ranma's shoulder.   
"Thanks, Ranma. I owe you one. She's all prepped just on the odd   
chance we *do* get a call. Enjoy yourself!"   
The pilot was gone. Back into the lift and off to his girlfriend.   
Ranma hoped they would have a good time. In the meantime he visually   
inspected his plane, giving the armaments a look-see. Then he accessed a   
technician's terminal and went into more detail as to what kind of plane   
this was. It didn't sound like anything was planned for this night, but   
you never knew. And with *his* luck...   
A yellow light flicked on and a klaxon sounded. Lisa's voice came   
over the speakers. "Unidentified craft in sector G. Launch scout   
patrol."   
Ranma put on his helmet with a sense of dread. He didn't need anyone   
telling him who the scout patrol was this evening. 

Lisa checked with the commander of Prometheus. Yes, the pilot had   
launched and was prepared to intercept. She switch comm channels and   
gasped as Ranma's face filled the screen.   
"Ranma, what on earth are you doing on patrol today? I personally   
approved your sick leave."   
"My squadron leader had some things to say that made me feel alot   
better." Ranma confessed. He followed with a shaky grin. "So where are   
the bad guys?"   
Lisa mellowed. If Fokker knew then she didn't mind, so long as Ranma   
wasn't upset by it. "They are in sector G, delta quadrant. I'm   
downloading the tracking data to your veritech's computer now."   
Ranma nodded. The computers that he'd seen here were so powerful   
they'd help you blow your nose. From what he'd seen of this craft's   
stuff he was beginning to feel alot more competent. He could fly most   
aircraft fine, but the last time he'd been in a battle in one had been a   
triplane in the first world war.   
Not many men could say they'd been shot down by the Red Baron.   
The tracking data was easy to convert into a navigational track. He   
pointed his aircraft on an intercept course and began to call up stats,   
play with controls, and generally get a feel for his craft.   
It was, in all, an impressively fine piece of machinery.   
Lisa's face reappeared on the left hand vidscreen. "Ranma, your   
flight path is erratic. Is something the matter?"   
For a solid instant Ranma considered chickening out. He was running   
to face an unknown foe in an airplane he was flying through space. But   
courage got the better of him.   
"Nothing, Lisa. The controls just seem a bit temperamental, I was   
only trying to isolate it. Any ideas for if this guy starts whipping the   
pants off me?"   
She smiled, amused by his banter. "Why don't you try going to   
battloid mode and punching him? I swear you could stop a mack truck with   
that fist of yours."   
He grinned. "Maybe. I've been working my way up from vans so far."   
The bridge girls enjoyed a good giggle at his joke. 

Ranma closed on the offending vehicle. The alien craft was huge and   
bulbous, looking a great deal like a giant, one-eyed toad in flight.   
Before he had closed to what he considered weapon range it spat four   
missiles at him, each seeming as large as his plane.   
Had it been just him he would have dodged them like so. Even as he   
thought it the attitude jets on his craft fired, putting him in line to   
do so. Too bad Ranma had no time to act on that, as the oncoming   
missiles compensated and he was forced to remember alot about aerial   
combat in a hurry.   
Not enough, not swiftly enough. One of the proximity fused warheads   
exploded close enough to shear off his left wing. Of course, this was   
space, which meant that he could still fly. But it also meant that the   
attitude thrusters that had been on that wing, not to mention the   
missiles, were gone.   
Ranma fired off his remaining missiles, hoping that they entertained   
the enemy as much as theirs had done for him.   
Guns blazing, more missiles launching, the vehicle turned on him.   
His missiles didn't even leave significant impact craters on it's hull.   
Okay, Ranma thought as he evaded the warheads, successfully this time.   
I'm in over my head again.   
So I've got what left, a gun? He began to use it. The enemy scored a   
hit upon him and shuddered his plane. Ranma didn't want to look at the   
damage reports, but he knew that it was bad. 

Claudia and Lisa were watching the remote feeds.   
"Could it be that Ranma has finally bit off more than he can chew   
this time?" Claudia asked.   
"I don't know, Claudia." Lisa Hayes replied, already keying up   
additional fighter launch. "I've never seen that kind of craft before,   
and something *must* be wrong with his controls. I've never see him fly   
this way before."   
"He certainly is staying in jet form alot longer than usual. Could   
it be that the controls are jammed?"   
"I don't know, Claudia." Lisa said in concern. She called up her   
husband. "Ranma, what's happened with your controls? Why don't you   
transform?" 

Ranma didn't spare a glance for the woman who was looking at him in   
grave concern. "I wish I knew, Lisa. Look, I may not get out of this."   
He admitted ruefully.   
"Hang in there!" His wife called. "There are reinforcements coming,   
ETA six minutes."   
"Thanks." He admitted, dodging an energy blast that turned his   
cowling gray with heat. The transmission failed.   
Okay, what am I missing here? He asked himself, glad that his enemy   
finally seemed to have run out of missiles.   
Sensors pinged as an enemy cruiser began closing range to recover   
its scout ship. A laser bolt from that same scout impacted on his   
underside and totaled the main weapon of Ranma's plane.   
Ranma looked over his controls, dodging by instinct and hoping he   
was right. Both times Lisa had said something about changing modes.   
Okay, nothing left to try before he died, he saw three levers and   
grabbed the one marked B. 

To Be Continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

YES!!!   
I, the Rampant Disclaimer Thief, have returned! (Ah, my silky   
darlings) This is primarily a Ranma fic, but I will freely include   
anything and all that strikes my fancy. This includes wildly   
inappropriate disclaimers, fun situations, characters, riddles, and   
anything that catches my eye.   
I'm in this to have fun, and you should be too. 

And now, those who are in the know don't need to be told what they   
are in the know about. Those who don't can guess. The Mirrors series is   
undergoing heavy rewrite. The only complaint I've got so far is that one   
person didn't feel that Kodachi should have been introduced so early. I   
couldn't read all the compliments because my mail box was full of   
hysterical giggling. 

ANYWAY, forward work has slowed as we rewrote the past. Some special   
things you'll become aware of as I post them. Till then, find me in a   
dark alley and mug me. I'll *never* tell!   
Bwahahahahaha!!!!! 


	9. 9

jared@netuser.com> 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Nine   
Something Unexpected 

by Jared Ornstead 

Stealth Disclaimer (load decoding sequencer now) 

pod8urynw":>}ieurytiov7y5b0i4b758689n196=773b06e4754e3d568   
(*&^87wny4n06w436s3a3886)&%*(%$#(&^_(baboon=773b06e475   
4e3d56887wny4n06w436s3a388636b76085vw94ukiuho8>}{:}:>po   
wdery(*&^)*^%no":>}ieurytiov7y5b0i4b758689n196=773b06e4754e   
3d56887wny4n06w436s3a388636b76085vw94uki(*&^)*^%uho8>}   
{:}:> 

************************************************ 

Lisa's eyes swam so she could no longer see her monitor. A flash of   
heat had replaced her husband's face on the screen and now the remote   
feed from his veritech was gone.   
"Vermilion group." Claudia took over for her friend. "Proceed to   
sector G, delta quadrant. Ghost squadron, prepare for takeoff."   
The bridge girls looked up from their boards in sympathy for their   
grieving commander.   
General Henry Gloval stepped onto the bridge, ducking his head under   
the low entryway. "Report." He commanded, taking his seat in the command   
chair.   
Claudia answered without batting an eyelash. "Sir, we've got an   
enemy recon unit in sector G, with one alien mother ship coming in for   
what looks like a pickup. Vermilion group and ghost squadron are   
preparing to intercept."   
"Hmm," Gloval saw his first officer, Lisa Hayes, was obviously   
wrestling with something. He decided to let her be and addressed   
Claudia. "And what happened to our scout patrol?"   
"Lieutenant Ranma Saotome reported a mechanical malfunction before   
engaging the enemy." Lisa answered, bent over, suppressing her sobs. "He   
was shot down just moments ago."   
The general nodded. A man would have to be blind and a fool not to   
have noticed how those two felt about each other. But it would deprive   
her of much of her ability to cope to ask her to stand down right now.   
"Carry on." 

Battle screens lit up in Ranma's remodeled cockpit and he looked   
down through them at what could only be hands. His veritech's reflection   
in an oncoming missile revealed that what had been a fighter jet was now   
humanoid in form.   
He dodged out of the way of the missile without even thinking about   
it.   
Ranma had a flash of inspiration as his craft nimbly side skipped   
the missile. This plane detected thought patterns! He'd been messing   
himself up, analyzing what he'd do as himself, then reacting as a pilot. 

Unfortunately, he didn't know the controls in this form very well. A   
blast shook his veritech, piercing the cockpit and creating a laser hole   
*through* the pilot's chair over Ranma's left shoulder. Self sealant   
plugged the leak.   
"Okay, that's it!" He hauled out the Silver Crystal.   
"Earth Disguise Power! Make me into a totally hotshot veritech   
pilot!"   
It didn't work *quite* like he'd hoped. He'd been wanting nothing   
but to counterfeit a few skills. Instead it seemed to open up his mind   
to the entire life of the Ranma he'd replaced. Even as he did it he knew   
he'd never learn a life this way again. The pain and confusion of   
remembering a whole life all at once were just too terrible.   
But his veritech was now dodging with an ease that mirrored what he   
could do himself, his hands stroking the controls with amazing   
proficiency and skill, while his mind poured through combat moves his   
previous self could never have contemplated. Ranma also felt himself   
grow a sort dual awareness. One, a kind of silent one, was his ordinary   
self. The other, the veritech fighting machine that was hanging in   
space.   
The combat mecha cracked it knuckles, Silver Imperial energy flowing   
into otherwise destroyed systems, bringing them online with shuddering   
power.   
With a grin and a grimace Ranma settled into this battle anew. 

Lieutenant Rick Hunter led the two companions that, with him,   
comprised vermilion group toward the enemy's known location.   
"How far is ghost squadron behind us?" He asked Claudia on his left   
screen. Lisa appeared on the right view of the three part display.   
"Less than three minutes, vermilion leader. Just keep on your   
present heading and slow the enemy until reinforcements arrive."   
"Roger that, commander. But I thought it was the scout's job to do   
that for *us*. Did Ranma fall asleep in his veritech again?" He wasn't   
bitter about being called back from his date, he just wanted to get some   
friendly digs in.   
"Lieutenant Saotome was destroyed." Lisa answered coldly. "Watch   
yourself out there Hunter." Her face vanished from his screen.   
Rick Hunter felt himself sweat cold. Oh, man! Something that could   
get Ranma really *could* get anyone! He hunched his shoulders. "Max,   
Ben, you heard?"   
"Roger that, vermilion leader."   
"Hey, Rick." Max Sterling called. "We're coming up now, and it   
doesn't look peaceful over there."   
Rick Hunter raised his eyes to the battle. "SDF-1, this is pilot   
Rick Hunter. We're going in, but you ought to know that it looks like   
our boy Saotome isn't out of the fight yet. Over." 

Lisa keyed her monitor in wonder, hope surfacing with a shuddering   
blast. "Roger, vermilion leader. See if you can offer some assistance.   
Over."   
"Roger that." Rick's voice crackled over the speakers.   
Lisa keyed in the long range optics, bringing the battle scene to   
the bridge with greater clarity than enjoyed by the three veritechs who   
were providing the input.   
Everyone leaned forward in their seats to stare at the monitor. What   
they saw was amazing. 

Ranma vaulted through a screen of missiles with nary a care. Eleven   
fighter pods had attacked him from the enemy side, but they couldn't   
hold a candle to Kuno's pilots, or any of his usual foes. He grabbed one   
of them as they passed, ripped open the canopy, ripped the pilot out of   
his seat, and turned the craft's own missiles and firepower against the   
scout ship that he'd been fighting in the first place.   
He'd emptied the missile tubes and was overheating the cannons by   
the time they got a lock on him. The weapon expired and so he launched   
the whole craft at the hulking scout, rocket boosters turning the   
unmanned fighter itself into a missile.   
Ranma spun his veritech free and wheeled to face two new foes,   
punching open hull plates and ripping apart engine housings. Both   
fighters exploded. Ranma vaulted away and used his piddling head lasers   
to tickle the side of another fighter while diving for the surface of   
the scout. The big guns on the monster toad had just finished silencing   
the threat posed by the unmanned fighter.   
Ranma's veritech flew through an airlock in a flying kick, catching   
on the side as the atmosphere evacuated, then running into the center of   
the ship. Three pilots were in the command chairs. Ranma disabled them   
all with swift blows to their pressure suits, then turned the scout's   
guns against the fighter escort that was trying to protect it.   
Two expanded in gaseous clouds before they reacted to the new   
threat.   


"I don't believe what I'm seeing." Rick's voice echoed through the   
speakers. Lisa was watching the monitor with swimming eyes and clasped   
hands, her cheeks tracked with tears of joy.   
"Believe it, lieutenant. That's my *husband* you're talking about   
there." Lisa said, realizing that she no longer cared who knew. 

Ranma turned the ungainly toad toward the SDF-1. Running out of the   
busted airlock he addressed the oncoming planes.   
"Here, catch!" He called, using his suit radio. His veritech's was   
busted, along with about half his plane, but he was getting mad. He   
disliked people who made him feel scared, and these aliens had made him   
feel very frightened indeed.   
He rocketed off to grapple another fighter pod in hand to hand   
combat. The fighter lost. 

"Bring that vessel under tow immediately!" General Gloval ordered.   
He leaned back into his seat. "Our scientists will want to have a look   
inside that thing. A nearly intact alien scout could have a great deal   
of information."   
Lisa gave the order, her singing, teared face brimming with pride   
and triumph. Then she caught a closer look at Ranma's veritech through   
the optics.   
"Rick! Relay orders to Ranma Saotome that he is to retreat   
*immediately!* His craft is far too heavily damage to continue in this   
battle!"   
"Roger, Lisa. I'm going to have to catch up with him, though. His   
suit radio is the only contact we've had with him."   
"Hurry, Rick." Lisa pled. 

A blast nearly tore the left arm off of Ranma's veritech. But he had   
discovered an amazing thing. He didn't feel any pain. He could keep   
fighting and not *worry* about how beat up he got. Everything functioned   
regardless.   
He skipped past a soaring fighter. They were all steering well away   
from him now, and he didn't have the speed in this form to catch them.   
Well, no matter. There was an alien mother ship approaching. It didn't   
look to be more than a thousand feet long. It couldn't hold more than a   
few hundred, maybe a thousand, of these fifty foot aliens.   
Corridor fighting suited his mood excellently. 

Rick poured on thrust as he saw Ranma's veritech dive for the   
approaching alien cruiser. "He's got to be crazy!"   
"Crazy or not, we've got to go after him." Max replied.   
Swallowing their collective fear vermilion group followed the   
distant veritech into battle. 

"He's crazy!" Lisa cried, flinching back from what she'd seen on the   
monitor.   
General Gloval found himself playing umpire. "He may have discovered   
something inside that scout that led him to this course of action.   
Relax, Lisa. Your husband is a capable fellow. I'm sure he knows what   
he's doing."   
He began tapping tobacco into his pipe. I sure *hope* he knows what   
he's doing, he thought to himself.   
"General Gloval!" Sammy cried urgently, causing an adrenaline surge   
that flung the commander inches into air.   
"What is it, Sammy?" He turned, expecting an enemy fleet had climbed   
up on their flank.   
"There's no smoking on the bridge!" She reminded. 

Vermilion group landed on the hull of the Zentraedi cruiser, near a   
big gaping hole where an airlock used to be. Ben covered Rick and Max as   
they jumped into the pit from opposite sides. They covered the hallways   
as he followed them in.   
"How are we going to find him?" Rick asked, having his veritech look   
down the corridors.   
"Just follow the bodies, I guess." Max wisely replied, pointing to a   
trail of dead aliens.   
The trio began to race down the hallway. 

Ranma grinned in feral delight. No one could tell how his veritech   
was holding together, but it was holding. And, as the fifty aliens in   
the last hanger could attest to, it wasn't slowing down for anything.   
The cramped quarters on board the alien ship proved ideal for his   
favorite kind of fighting. They couldn't get away, and they sure had   
nothing they could face him with. Bullet and laser holes scarred his   
mecha, but Ranma raced through the passageways with an alien rifle in   
each arm and another slung over his back.   
He zipped into another flight hanger. The enemy mecha squatted in   
rows, cramped even in the vast space available.   
Ranma didn't care. He *liked* cramped. He could whiz and zig between   
alien forms all day and not feel the least bit worried. Besides, their   
wild shooting in all directions caused half of them to destroy the other   
half, then do it again. He added his own share of fire to the equation,   
but a packed hanger bay was not the place for tank equivalents to be   
fighting.   
Through a bloody hail of fire the occupants of the hanger managed to   
almost extinguish themselves. Ranma finished the survivors off and leapt   
through another opening. 

A blistering explosion rocked the alien cruiser.   
"Sensors confirmed a huge explosion aboard the alien vessel." The   
girl on sensors alerted. "It was preceded by a storm of contained laser   
fire. Occupying the location where one of their main hangers used to be.   
Estimated capacity of half their ship's mecha force."   
Sensors trilled again. "A similar but smaller explosion is occurring   
within their forward launch bay. That makes the third hanger to blow so   
far."   
Everyone stared disbelievingly at the monitors.   
"It's not *possible!*" Gloval sputtered, forgetting for a moment   
whose feelings he might be hurting. "How could ANYONE cause that kind of   
damage and survive? It can't be done! He HAS to have died by now!" 

"ANOTHER one!" Max cried disbelievingly, and they stepped into yet   
another blown out hanger.   
"Look out, Max! Behind you!" Ben blasted an alien that had somehow   
survived the devastation.   
Rick stepped out into an area where blown hull plates allowed a view   
of the far distant SDF-1. "This is Lieutenant Hunter calling SDF-1, do   
you copy? Over."   
"This is SDF-1. Go ahead, Rick." Lisa's voice answered, spotted with   
static.   
"You have to *SEE* this place! It looks like the main gun went off   
in here. I'm sorry that we haven't been able to find Ranma, but he's   
been destroying everything faster than we can run through the carnage."   
"I understand, Rick. Do what you can. Over."   
"Yeah, we'll guard his back as best we can." Max supplied. With a   
nod the group ran into another corridor. 

On only one leg and using a rifle as a cane Ranma's veritech limped   
into the command bridge of the Zentraedi vessel. The crew screamed and   
began to run away from him.   
The captain reached for the self-destruct sequencer, but the   
battered and ugly human machine raised a rifle and pointed it directly   
toward his chest. The captain wavered, then realized there wasn't time   
to initiate the program and fled.   
Ranma sat in a smoke-filled pilot's compartment in the midst of   
shorting controls and a small equipment fire. Well, the thing *had*   
finally locked up. He'd begun to think it might not have *any* limits.   
His anger drained away and Ranma curled up on his pilot's seat,   
shuddering in aftershock.   
He didn't get upset often, and fear bound up with anger tied up on   
top of the previous strain had just wiped him out. 

"Ghost squadron reports the alien scout secured, sir. Apparently,   
Ranma left three prisoners on board. The pilots of the craft have all   
been disabled."   
Gloval nodded to Claudia. "Good. Have the aliens restrained and   
transferred aboard a cargo shuttle. We'll put them in the Daedelus   
section while Dr. Lang looks over their ship. Any word from the   
cruiser?"   
"None, general." Lisa answered. "Though escape pods are continuing   
to fire." 

Max Sterling's veritech climbed out on the surface of the warship.   
"Hey, commander Hayes." He called. "It looks like we'll be needing a   
med-evac and a huge tow truck. We've found your husband. He was standing   
alone in the bridge of the alien vessel. His veritech looks like Swiss   
cheese, and it's systems are frozen, but he has captured an enemy   
warship singlehanded!"   
"Is he alright?" Came the concerned reply.   
"Well, some minor burns when his controls exploded. Frankly, I can't   
imagine how he made it. But your husband is one tough man, and he seems   
to be just fine. Rick and Ben are standing guard over our young hero   
while they wait for your reply." Max grinned into his pickup. "Mrs.   
Saotome."   
"Red, Green and Skull squadrons should be there any time now. I'll   
dispatch a medical shuttle to meet you halfway." Lisa's smile could be   
heard through the speakers. 

Ranma was brought aboard the SDF-1 on a medical gurney. Cheering met   
him in the hanger as the shuttle doors opened up. Doctors wheeled him   
down a ramp cleared by military police, while above and around him every   
available surface was crammed with military personnel cheering their   
lungs out for him.   
The crew had felt like the underdog since this war had started. It   
made a *huge* difference to have a battle go so differently.   
Human losses: None. Alien losses: Over a thousand. Any soldier would   
be giddy with the news. Especially soldiers who were used to battles   
where they usually lost friends.   
Commander Lisa Hayes met the gurney at the lift. Flinging herself   
bodily onto her husband's chest before the doors had even fully closed.   
"You FOOL! You brave, brave fool! Don't you EVER frighten me like that   
again! I felt sure that you'd get yourself killed!"   
One of the doctors tried to remove her. "Excuse me, miss Hayes. The   
patient's wounds are..."   
She lifted her head and neck to glare venomously at the physician.   
"My name is SAOTOME. This idiot of a bone-brained, courageous young fool   
is my *husband!* And I'll want a full report on his progress."   
"Of course, miss... Mrs. Saotome. We'll do everything we can. But   
you're going to aggravate his condition. His chest area has been   
severely burned." 

The Zentraedi cruiser was brought alongside the SDF-1 and secured.   
Teams of mighty destroids prowled the corridors prepared for pockets of   
enemy resistance. They found none.   
"Well, Dr. Lang." General Gloval addressed his chief engineer on the   
monitor. "What are your estimates to repair the enemy vessel?"   
"General, most of the ship's systems are fully operational. Poorly   
maintained, but functioning. You must congratulate that pilot for me, he   
kept most of the fighting near the outer hull, and to be honest it's   
quite a mess there now. But he took the bridge without a single round   
being fired. The wealth of computer and alien information is really   
quite a find."   
Gloval digested this. "Hmm, so how soon can she be ready? It would   
be quite pleasant to have an escort for a change."   
The doctor glanced away, then back again. "I'm sorry, general. But   
just because primary systems are functioning doesn't make this a piece   
of cake, you know. To get her fighting we'd need a great deal more in   
the way of supplies than we've presently got. Her outer hull looks like   
Swiss cheese. And most of her guns went up when the hull underneath them   
did. So she's really not in fighting shape. Add to that the difficulty   
of conversion for a human crew... Well, we just haven't got enough spare   
plating or materials."   
General Gloval nodded. "I see."   
The chief engineer decided to risk something. "General, if you would   
listen to a small suggestion. From my point of view we have two options.   
First, we can take the ship and cannibalize it for parts, parts we're   
greatly in need of just now. Or..."   
Gloval interrupted him. "Or we could take the ship as it is and send   
it back to Earth with a skeleton crew. That's what you're thinking, yes?   
Vot." He tipped his hat back and leaned back in his chair. "I really   
don't see how we can take any other option. With Earth's resources they   
should be able to retrofit the vessel faster than *we* could, and they   
could send it back to us loaded with reinforcements and some much needed   
supplies."   
The engineer bowed. "That was exactly my suggestion, general." 

Breeti, commander Zentraedi forces in the Earth quadrant, finished   
interviewing a survivor over the monitor. He terminated the connection,   
turning to his advisor.   
"Well, Exedore, what do you think of it?"   
The shorter alien addressed taller. "*Very* intriguing, my lord. A   
whole battle cruiser lost to no more than four units."   
Breeti nodded. "Yes, the scanners were very clear on that."   
"If I might suggest, my lord. We have the records from earlier parts   
of this fight and they reveal nothing unusual. It would seem that if   
this were some kind of new fighter its performance would have been   
obvious even then."   
Tall looked down at short, quizzically. "What you're saying then is   
that this might be some kind of battle rage inherent to the species?"   
"Either that or stimulated. If you'll remember we've fought many   
races already that could use a berserk rage to great effect."   
"That's true. Exedore, I would like a great deal more information on   
this species before we proceed further. I would like a trio of spies to   
be placed aboard that battle fortress."   
"*Very* unpleasant duty, sir. Whom shall we assign?"   
"Hmm," Breeti, tall even for his giant species, rubbed his chin.   
"If I might make a suggestion, sir. None of our men are particularly   
suited to such an assignment. But Azonia's squadron is just a few light   
years away..."   
Breeti snapped his fingers with a knowing smirk. "Call Azonia's   
group. Have them send over a ship to provide and recover spies from the   
alien vessel."   
Exedore bowed. "It will be done, sir." 

Roy Fokker entered the hospital room and tossed a bunch of flowers   
on the foot of the bed. "How ya feelin, kid?"   
Ranma, propped up on pillows and swathed in bandages, nodded toward   
his IV. "If it weren't for this I'd feel alright. Doctors don't spend   
much time listening, do they?"   
Fokker found himself a chair. "No, they don't. But listen here, you   
do what they tell you and you'll be up and fighting in no time. Which   
reminds me." Roy grinned. "Next time I ask you for a favor remind me to   
quantify it. I don't remember asking you to take on a *battlecruiser*."   
Ranma shrugged. "It was there."   
They both laughed.   
"Oh, and Ranma. Congratulations are in order. Lisa's asked for your   
belongings to be transferred to her apartment, she's telling everyone   
about the wedding. Word's got over the whole ship. You're a lucky man."   
Ranma blushed, but played along. "Hey, *I* knew that a long time   
ago."   
"Well, no more sneaking around corridors for the two of you anyway.   
*And* there's going to be an award ceremony. You're a hero, kid. The   
only thing we could do to make this better is to have Miss Macross drop   
by to give you a kiss. What do you say, should I find her? Apparently   
she's quite a mystery girl."   
Ranma laughed. He hadn't known this Roy long, but it was obvious he   
was the mentor type, never happier than when helping other people out.   
There were worse ways to get your satisfaction, he might as well play   
along.   
"Sure Roy, you do that. I'd love to see her, just make sure that a   
kiss is *all* she wants. I'm married, you know." And with luck he'd be   
out of here before anyone established the connection.   
Roy smirked, standing up from his chair. "She'll be pure as the   
driven snow. I promise you. Now you start feeling better." He fired an   
imaginary pistol at Ranma. "That's an order."   
"Sure, and tell Rick that I'm sorry he got called away from his   
date."   
"*You're* sorry? Ranma, *she's* sorry she held him up! That story   
about your fight has been all over the news. In fact the reporters at   
first wouldn't believe it, so the general released several clips from   
your flight recorder to back it up. There's a whole sensation going on.   
I believe Lisa even has a letter for you wanting to make your story into   
a movie. Between you and that mystery girl the press are having a field   
day."   
He cocked a hand, pointing a finger at Ranma. "And if I have to   
field one more question about why you and she have the same last name I   
think I'm going to forget about coming back."   
"Coming back? Where are you going?"   
Roy sat back down. "Oh, that's right. You've been doped up these   
past few days. We're sending that ship you captured back to Earth for a   
refit. I'm provisionally put in charge. The general first offered it to   
Lisa, but she practically tore his head off. Said she wasn't leaving you   
for *any* reason."   
The door chimed and opened. Lisa walked in.   
Roy unwrapped himself from around the chair. "Well, that's about it.   
I have to be going. Say, why don't you capture another? That way you can   
join me on Earth for some tequila. See ya around!"   
Lisa straightened the chair and resumed her place in it. She'd spent   
alot of time on those cushions of late.   
Ranma sat up.   
"Don't, Ranma, you'll aggravate your injuries!" She cried, holding   
her hands out to him.   
He obediently lay back down.   
Lisa shrank in on herself. "Please, Ranma. I don't have very much   
time with you..."   
He cocked an eyebrow. That chair knew her backside better than he   
did. The cushions had a permanent imprint of it. Something was up if she   
wasn't able to be with him now that the doctors deemed he was allowed to   
be awake.   
"Lisa. Don't lie to me. I know you've been here while I was   
sleeping. Why can't you be with me now that I can enjoy it?"   
She looked away.   
"I'm sorry, Ranma. The general needs me on the bridge. We're sort of   
short handed."   
He sat up again, ignoring her protests. "Short handed? Lisa, the..."   
He thought for a fast second, running symbols he'd seen through his   
mind. "Robotech Defense Forces allow leave don't they? Look, the only   
reason you couldn't..."   
She flinched.   
"...is a battle. Isn't it?"   
He threw off the covers, standing up. "Underway or in progress?" He   
asked.   
Lisa stood and tried to push him back down. "Please, Ranma! You   
don't have to do this! There are plenty of other pilots..."   
He did not allow her to move him. "Plenty of other pilots? With the   
bridge crew short handed? Lisa, please. Here, let me show you   
something." He lifted his arm to one shoulder and tore the bandages open   
down his side.   
His chest, smeared with medical goop, was whole and healthy.   
"What? How?" Lisa was backing off.   
He was peeling the bandages from his skin. "I only wish they'd let   
me wake up sooner. Part of my training is to deal with injuries. When   
I'm awake it doesn't matter how much pain I'm in. I heal fast."   
She looked at him in wonder, reaching out a tentative hand toward   
his chest. He stood and let her touch the unburned skin. She almost   
flinched, but he held himself unwavering. Her hand sought out the   
smoothness of his ribs, then she was in his arms.   
"Oh, Ranma!" She cried, tears moistening his chest. "I was *so*   
afraid! They told me... Oh! I was so worried!"   
Ranma held her, allowing her to release a torrent of emotions in the   
safety of his arms. He raised his head to the sky. There were times when   
he was very glad to be himself. No matter who that happened to be.   
A medical orderly knocked and then entered. "Excuse me, Mrs.   
Saotome. The general wants you on the bridge."   
Lisa straightened herself, drying tears, trying to ignore the   
medical goop that had stained her uniform. "Thanks, I'll be right   
there."   
"Brewing." Ranma concluded, looking down at her. "You wouldn't be   
off the bridge in a battle, not even for this."   
She nodded, collecting her jacket. "I really should be going. The   
general has been trying to hold the enemy off while we get a prize crew   
aboard the captured cruiser. It doesn't help that only men in battloids   
are large enough to pilot her. There's been some aliens pressing our   
flanks and with our mecha forces low..."   
She kissed him on the cheek. "You won't go, will you?" Her eyes   
begged him.   
He reassured her. "There are times when a guy has to, Lisa. But I'll   
stay alive for you."   
She smiled, tears restarting. "You'd better Saotome. I'm not about   
to let you die before I find out what *real* married life is like."   
"It includes alot of this." He kissed her, then patted her on the   
bottom. "Now go. I'll be seeing you soon enough."   
She went. 

Ranma adjusted some controls as the lift brought his veritech to the   
surface of the flight deck. Automates rotated his plane into position.   
"All clear!" The crewman informed him over the radio.   
Jets warmed and then roared to full life. Thrusters catapulted him   
across the flight deck and into space. That odd sense of duality   
returned to him, making him feel like a bird soaring through an endless   
sky.   
"Blue leader." Lisa's voice and image interrupted his thoughts. "You   
may join up with your squadron at point three-four-two mark one. Over."   
For once Ranma was totally at a loss.   
"Um, I don't know where that is, Lisa."   
She looked ashamed. "Oh, I'm sorry. You weren't here when we issued   
the new code books, were you? Here, let me find an old one..."   
He cut her off. "No, Lisa, don't. I'm sure our enemy is monitoring.   
If we give them a tie-in to the old codes then that defeats the purpose   
of changing them. Why don't you just feed me a navigational track?" 

She blushed, then turned to the general. "Can we *do* that?"   
Gloval tilted his cap. "I don't see why not. It should be a good   
exercise for you, Lisa. And your husband has a point. What is he doing   
out of bed, anyway? I had understood that he was not to be released for   
some while yet."   
Ranma's voice came over the speaker. "Lisa, you can assure the   
general. I had a doctor check me out thoroughly and approve me as ready   
to fly. I almost didn't even have to hit him."   
"Ranma!" Lisa blazed at the speakers. "Why would you *do* such a   
thing! Why!" She caught herself, noticing that everyone except her was   
laughing.   
"Roger, blue leader, transferring new information now."   
"I love you, Lisa."   
"Military communications only, blue leader. And I love you too,   
Ranma."   
"Roger that, commander." 

*   
Scene of Ranma leading blue squadron through packs of enemy mecha,   
encountering the deadly female powersuits for the first time.   
*   
Scene of three small female Zentraedi spies being delivered secretly   
aboard the SDF-1. Joining the RDF and getting introduced to the   
mysteries of shopping, music, movies and video games.   
*   
Scene of a Zentraedi command cruiser blowing apart the sensor tower   
of the SDF-1, forcing Lisa to fly out in a recon unit so the ship won't   
be totally blind. Ranma and vermilion group fly her escort.   
*   
Scene aboard the Zentraedi flagship. Ranma, Lisa and Ben from   
vermilion group are trapped in a science chamber, confined to a specimen   
table by force fields. Rick and Max prowl the corridors in search of   
them while Breeti recovers from injuries sustained in his battle with   
Saotome.   
Scans of the captive humans reveal that Lisa is slightly pregnant.   
*   
In the Zentraedi high command ship, a vast space station hundreds of   
miles across, Ranma, Ben and Lisa are interrogated by Dolza, the   
Zentraedi ultimate high commander.   
Dolza threatens to crush Lisa in his grip unless she explains the   
`parasite' she has aboard her. Ranma kills the Zentraedi high commander   
with a Dragon Fist, then explains to a startled Breeti and Exedore that   
human males may learn these powers to defend the ones they love.   
Leads to a discussion of love and a demonstration of the kiss, with   
its shocking and debilitating effects on the Zentraedi who have never   
seen anything like it.   
*   
Rick and Max, still in their veritechs, rescue their friends from   
being executed. Ranma gets splashed, revealing his dual identity, but   
allowing him to wreak fearsome slaughter among the enemy as Sailor   
Earth. Using several of her Earth Cataclysms and Earth Cataclysm Waves   
to work vast damage on small portions of the station, covering their   
escape into a small cruiser returning to the front.   
*   
Ranma, working together with Rick and Max, kill the crew of the   
cruiser and lead the captured ship back into human space. The small   
group keeps Ranma's secret.   
*   
The female spies aboard the SDF-1 see the very first Ranko movie, an   
instant sensation. One of them meets the young Ranma, but gets politely   
but firmly rebuffed, leading to their researching marriage and it's   
customs.   
*   
Ranma and Lisa stand on the outside deck of the SDF-1, floating   
somewhere in the Pacific ocean, holding a small baby in their arms.   
*   
The SDF-1 is ordered back into space. There they are ambushed by an   
alien force of considerable size and power. They fight bravely, losing   
several of their pilots, then Roy Fokker returns in the newly   
refurbished and commissioned Earth heavy cruiser Bismark, using his own   
ship's resources to even the odds and beat back the enemy.   
*   
On board the SDF-1 the three female spies, now working stations on   
the SDF-1 bridge, confront General Gloval privately and reveal   
themselves as foreign agents, requesting political asylum and to be   
allowed to continue working with the crew of the SDF-1.   
Gloval, conferring with his closest advisors, decides instead to   
employ them as double agents, going back aboard the Zentraedi fleet and   
attempting to corrupt the aliens with a liking toward earth culture.   
The attempt is a 100% success. Using Ranko dolls and music, plus   
copies of videos and earth cuisine, the spies find vast success in   
intriguing their own commander, then later Breeti and Exedore. Further   
inquiries are made into earth culture, and the attacks are scaled back   
while this new thing is investigated.   
*   
Breeti and Exedore, along with the Zentraedi main armada, defect   
over to the side of the SDF-1. Fights with renegade fleets are swiftly   
put down by the might of the main armada coupled with the hauntingly   
powerful effect of Ranko's singing.   
Ranma introduces the Zentraedi to sports and games, while their huge 

fleet is being micronized. Soon there aren't enough beaches to hold the   
giants playing watersports, and the phrase "When a Zentraedi hates   
volleyball" comes to be synonymous with "never."   
Mass colonization efforts of other planets begin.   
* 

Ranma guided his veritech effortlessly around the bulk of one of the   
orbital shipyards. He didn't get much of a chance to fly the veritechs   
anymore, but he relished the opportunities he got to do so.   
He keyed communications.   
"Lisa, I love the controls on these new planes. The movement is   
really much smoother."   
"I'll show you smooth, Ranma." She replied throatily over the   
private communications link.   
His eyebrows rose. "What, aren't five children enough for you?"   
"Nothing is enough for me as far as *you* are concerned, darling.   
I'm aiming for a round dozen."   
He smiled, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Well, I can see that I'm   
going to be busy. I'd better head back."   
"Roger, commander SDF-2, you can land on the heavy cruiser   
Richthofen and proceed through the docking link to the main ship." She   
smiled seductively. "Your quarters await you."   
Ranma senses noticed something. "Wait a minute, Lisa. I've got a   
strange light appearing over my left shoulder."   
"Can you describe it, Ranma?"   
"It looks to be expanding, holding a steady course and speed." His   
veritech changed direction. "No, wait a minute. It appears to be   
tracking me!"   
"Is it hostile?" Lisa's voice was instantly concerned.   
"No way to tell for certain, why don't we just assume it is enough   
to..." Ranma got a startling flash of memory.   
It had been fourteen years. This had to be a gate. His home universe   
was calling. 

He realized that just as it claimed him. 

*****   
Universe B, Home Universe 

Ranma wrestled his veritech through an uncontrolled atmosphere   
landing. Power had cut out momentarily and before he had it back on   
again he was deep in atmosphere and flailing in the wind.   
Well, he might have appeared deep in atmosphere. It was a moot   
point.   
Wind screamed around his hull and the veritech bucked and power cut   
back on. Ranma desperately applied braking thrusters, reconfiguring to   
guardian configuration to swivel both main engines forward to stop his   
spin and slow his fall. 

Belldandy crossed her arms, brow flaring with energy as the cyborg   
renewed the assault upon them.   
"Die!" Cross commanded, bringing lightning around her fist and   
blasting it against the shield erected by the young goddess.   
Nodoka remained in prone position, protecting Kasumi with her body   
and attempting to steady the gauss rifle for another shot at the cyborg. 

So far they hadn't penetrated her defense field, but you never knew.   
If Cross' control were to slip for even an instant Nodoka would be ready   
for it. Belldandy focused all her energy into maintaining her shield.   
"You can't win!" The cyborg yelled, blasting once more against their   
barrier.   
Belldandy's face was calm yet stern. "We have no need to win, evil   
one, to know that you will receive your just reward!"   
Cross cocked her wrist, preparing another blast. "My reward? Your   
FEAR is my favorite source of psycho energy. What greater reward could I   
ask? Be afraid for me, be very afraid. If you do, I will let you be the   
last to live. I will kill all the rest before you."   
Belldandy frowned in anger. "Do you think I would *accept* such a   
bargain? I could *never* agree to such a plan."   
Cross reaimed her blaster arm. "Suit yourself."   
The screaming howl of a too fast descent cut off into the roaring   
blast of braking thrusters, and Cross received a boot to the body from a   
fifty foot tall combat mecha.   
A foot came down, crushing one of the trees of the Saotome estate.   
Looking up the leg revealed a giant fighting machine in peak condition,   
bristling with newness and armaments.   
Loudspeakers blared.   
"Now you may deal directly with me, Ranma Saotome of the Robotech   
Defense Squadron!"   
Cross reacted with some surprise. "A void?" She assumed, relating   
the creature to one of her brother's bodyguard androids. Sparks of gauss   
rifle fire spattered off her shield. She tossed her head in contempt.   
"No, matter. I can deal with you anyway."   
As Cross said that she was swiftly sent flying by a kick with   
hundreds of tons of force behind it. Laser fire spattered her screens   
and Ranma's veritech kicked off the ground, flying after her while he   
unslung his main projectile rifle.   
Cross stabilized herself in the air, amazed. Her eyes, one normal,   
one just a point of red light in a socket, narrowed in calculation. "You   
are no ordinary android."   
In response she nearly lost her left arm as her defense shield   
wavered and kicked under the relentless pounding of thousands of slivers   
of hyper-velocity, anti-armor, penetrator rounds from his monster rifle. 

Laughing cut across the field of battle. "Perhaps, dear sister."   
Chaos' voice echoed across the roofs of the suburb. "You should consider   
this foe almost worthy of you. May I be permitted to help?"   
Cross reacted with uncanny disgust.   
"The voids would like to fight. May I let them, dear sister?"   
Cross was too afraid of her brother to say otherwise.   
"Until next time then, android." Cross faded from view while her   
brother's laughter wafted out over the rooftops. Then both were gone. 

Ranma parked his fighter on the Saotome landing bay and allowed the   
help to move it to a hanger. He rushed up to the house, pulling off his   
flight helmet. Replacing it with the white uniform cap that went with   
his blue military tunic and white dress slacks.   
His shoes had a mirror shine.   
Kasumi, Belldandy and Nodoka were huddled together in the kitchen.   
The servants were staring about themselves at the devastation, but were   
staying out of the way.   
Ranma tossed his helmet to Priory, who managed to catch it and hand   
it off to a maid.   
"What happened?" He asked, kneeling next to the trio and putting a   
hand out on one. Nodoka was swiftly controlling herself, and Kasumi was   
unflapped by anything, but Belldandy was in tears. She clung to him.   
"Oh, Ranma! We were attacked by a vicious creature. That woman and   
her brother spend their time destroying worlds! It was all I could do to   
hold her at bay. I *tried* to defend us!"   
"There, now." Ranma patted her shoulder and stroked her cheek,   
giving her the reassurance she needed just then. "You *did* defend us.   
You did just fine. If you hadn't been here I could never have arrived in   
time."   
Nodoka was perplexed by her son's uniform. "Son, where did you get   
that? And what's happened to you? What was that robot?"   
He released Belldandy long enough to snap his mother a salute.   
"Ranma Saotome, commander of the Northern Flight and the   
Super-Dimensional-Fortress Two, at your service ma'am." He dropped the   
salute and snickered. "Well, at least I was. Sheesh, back to high school   
again. Say, Bell-chan. This is the universe I'm thinking of, right?"   
Belldandy had recovered herself, finding solace in her ability to   
help another. "Yes, Ranma, it is. Here, let me help you. We can't have   
your girlfriends seeing you this old." She placed a glowing hand on his   
forehead and Ranma lost seventeen or more apparent years, restoring him   
to his original sixteen.   
He shook himself. "Someday, Bell-chan, you are going to have to   
teach me how to do that."   
Kasumi suddenly glomped him, weeping.   
Nodoka was nodding firmly. "Son, I don't know what your schedule is   
like. But I think I deserve the full explanation you promised me a while   
ago." 

Out in space a massive de-fold operation commenced.   
"...And so I've lived something on the order of three hundred   
lives." Ranma finished explaining, helping bandage Belldandy's arm. "But   
I've got this nasty habit of getting flung into other dimensions. How   
long was I gone this time, Bell-chan?"   
The goddess looked up at him. "About fifteen minutes, Ran-chan.   
Ucchan and Rae had only just left to muster their own forces when that   
alien attacked."   
Ranma was about to nod and say something more when Priory   
interrupted them.   
"If you will excuse the interruption, I believe there is something   
on the television that you ought to see."   
The quartet looked at each other, and followed Priory to the nearest   
intact TV set. On it Lisa's face filled the screen, speaking in English   
with subtitles running in the local languages.   
"Message repeats. This is the SDF-2, leader of the Robotech Assault   
Squadron Northern Flight. You have wrongfully abducted General Ranma   
Saotome of our defense forces. You have exactly 24 hours to return him   
unharmed to our armada or the entire inhabited surface of your planet   
will be destroyed. Message ends."   
The television tube returned to its original programming. 

Claudia Grant looked up from her sensor board. "I've got him,   
commander. There is a veritech power plant active in the region of   
Nerima Japan. What should I do about it?"   
Lisa got up from her command chair. "Launch all veritech squadrons   
and prepare to charge up the main gun. Call Colonel Fokker over from the   
Bismark, tell him to assume command. I'm taking a shuttle down there."   
Lisa Saotome left the bridge. 

Everyone, even Ranma, stared in shock at the screen. Nodoka was the   
first to recover. She turned a curious eye to her son.   
"General? You inspire a curious brand of loyalty, son."   
He shook himself out of his daze. "As far as they're concerned, this   
is just an ordinary colony world. They really do mean what they say.   
Anyone foolish enough to have actually abducted me would have incurred   
this kind of wrath."   
"Ranma, why are you so important to them?" Kasumi asked, clinging to   
his chest as the one solid piece of her world.   
Someone had blown up a kitchen!   
He shook his head, trying to clear it. "I more or less saved the   
human race from total annihilation. People have sortuv been grateful to   
me for that. Then there was the singing career." 

Unfortunately, people at the Kuno estate did not watch TV. 

Lisa's shuttle landed on the grounds of the Saotome mansion, two   
veritechs were riding escort, both switched to battloid mode to more   
effectively guard the terrain.   
The hatch undogged and the boarding ramp came down. Lisa exited   
wearing an envirosuit and with a sidearm strapped to her left hip. Which   
Ranma *knew* meant that she had to have a palm transmitter concealed in   
her right.   
Ranma was standing at the foot of the ramp, still in fleet uniform.   
"Lisa! Hi, and welcome to my home!"   
She looked over him carefully, then frowned. -Been visiting a youth   
clinic lately?- She asked him in Zentraedi.   
He shook his head. -Nothing like that.- He replied in the same   
language. -But something much, much weirder. First I suppose that I   
ought to tell you that this is not your dimension of origin.-   
She took off her helmet, shaking out her long hair. "I already know   
that Ranma," she said, switching to English. "It took Dr. Lang four   
months of pouring over sensor records to be able to piece together what   
happened to you. By that time it was clear this was a one-way mission.   
So alot of us old war heroes, as well as a heap of Zentraedi who *still*   
admire you, volunteered to see that you were going to be kept safe   
regardless of where we found you."   
Nodoka had been listening to this exchange.   
Ranma introduced her, switching to Japanese. "Lisa, I would like you   
to meet my mother. Mother, this is Lisa. She and I are married."   
Lisa saluted her mother-in-law, then smiled and bowed. "Pleased to   
meet you. You'll have to understand how odd this is for me. I remember   
my husband as being an orphan."   
The whistling of shells cut off further conversation. Lisa tackled   
her husband, shielding him with her body as one of her veritech escorts   
was reduced to scrap in a tremendous explosion.   
"Claudia!" She screamed into her computer comm link. "We're under   
heavy attack! We require *immediate* assistance!"   
In space above them one hundred and forty four veritechs pulled out   
of the cloud of fighters surrounding the SDF-2, splitting up into   
squadrons and driving at maximum allowable velocity toward the planet,   
their nose cones glowing bright in the friction heat.   
A twin pair of assault dropships separated from formation and began   
to rocket toward the surface. The main gun of the SDF-2 deployed and   
began to whine with the buildup preparatory to firing. 

Arisa stroked the firing controls of her Golem-2000 combat mecha.   
The giant battloid that had been firing in defense of the Saotome estate   
was reduced to a pile of slag.   
Four more Golem-2000's around her. Each bearing the Kuno emblem,   
they closed on the Saotome mansion. 

In space Claudia turned to her husband. "Roy, sensors are reading   
multiple missile launch from the planet's surface. Estimate two thousand   
nuclear-tipped warheads with multiple intercept capability!"   
Colonel Roy Fokker lounged in the command chair with one leg draped   
over the arm. He gestured languidly. "Well, fall back until we can get   
them within the firing cone of our big peashooter. Can you give me a   
location?"   
Claudia turned back to her boards. "Most of the launches come from   
an area corresponding to communist China."   
"When then, when we fire the main gun make sure that their capitol   
is under the beam. I don't want to have to do this twice. We'd better be   
clear about our firepower from the start." 

Scores of veritechs whipped over Tokyo with ear-splitting velocity,   
switching to guardian configuration to bleed off heat and speed. 

Blows like hammer strikes rained down on the Saotome estate,   
pulverizing buildings and turning Lisa's shuttle into ruin.   
There wasn't anywhere Ranma could run.   
If anything were different he could have grabbed vital members of   
his family and gotten them out of harm's way. But there were too many of   
them to carry, and where could he go? Kuno's men could find him, and it   
was all he could do to fight them on his own. He *couldn't* do that with   
a relative in tow.   
Nor could he run and hope they would follow him and avoid   
pulverizing the Saotome mansion and all it contained. Everyone here   
would die.   
Lisa was screaming into her communicator. "SDF-2, we need support   
*now!* We won't *be* here in thirty seconds!" 

Roy, now alert in the chair, looked over to Claudia. "Well, what are   
you waiting for? You heard the lady." He keyed the chair communicator.   
"Gun commanders, target all mecha within two mile radius of target and   
fire. Subsidiary plasma beam weapons only."   
On the surface of the battle fortress thousands of gun turrets   
oriented on target. 

The sky above Nerima lit up like night becoming day. Since it had   
already been day the change was quite impressive.   
Beams and licks of plasma fire lit up and mushroomed from the   
ground. The Golem force from the Kuno estate was utterly obliterated, as   
well as subsidiary artillery and a good deal of reserve powersuits.   
Veritechs screamed into the explosions out of nowhere, transforming   
as they went. A squadron pounced on one of the remaining Golems,   
miraculously unhurt by the blast. They leveled it instantly. A second   
group of twelve tore through the grounds of the Saotome estate, ripping   
into turf as they came to land in hunkered down guard positions. Four   
more squadrons spread out to lay down a withering covering fire that   
ripped and tore up tanks as they approached the Saotome mansion.   
A veritech shouldered aside a two story building, then leapt into   
the fray. Diving through rubble and grappling with an engaged spider   
tank, holding it helpless while two of its squadron mates riddled the   
tank with hyper velocity shells. All three veritechs kicked off into the   
atmosphere to avoid a huge explosion of counterfire, but a dozen other   
veritechs were already engaging the source of the fire.   
Ranma grabbed Lisa's communicator.   
"Assault group, this is General Saotome. The origin of this attack   
is the Kuno estate. Claudia, access property files and download the   
information to the battle group!" 

A squadron commander flying combat air patrol over the engaged   
ground forces smiled as the information began to appear on his computer.   
"Scarlet and Green squadrons, remain to cover the transports. All others   
follow me!"   
Four squadrons of fully armed veritechs peeled off to descend on the   
Kuno mansion. 

One veritech wearing Blue squadron markings did a forward roll   
through a building of brick and concrete, coming to bear with his   
thirty-foot long tri-barrel rifle. He sprayed defensive turrets on the   
Kuno grounds with merciless skill.   
Three other veritechs descended on a combat unit, an old style   
powersuit that one frightened gardener had donned when the fighting   
started. They left behind them explosions and scattered debris.   
Then the transports landed. 

To truly understand terror, one has to stand by while four hundred   
tons of articulated armor and weapons walked through buildings while the   
earth itself quaked and shuddered under their feet.   
The ground shook and trembled under the might of seventy of these   
monsters splintering the ground under their mighty strides.   
Individually, each carried no less that three times the firepower of a   
standard veritech. Collectively, there was not a nation on Earth with   
the power to oppose them.   
They began to wade through all resistance, blowing apart anything   
with the merest hint of a Kuno emblem. The Kuno estate deployed laser   
turrets of staggering number and variety. Having built up to this day   
for a long time.   
Only that many more targets for the mecha to destroy.   
A destroid with massive particle beams for arms destroyed the   
primary defense tower with a single, off-handed beam. Artillery units   
began to rain down battleship shells, each shot a supersonic ton of   
explosive capable a leaving a crater forty feet across.   
The first ripple of these shells washed over the Kuno estate like   
acid over styrofoam. Second and third ripples followed the first. 

A veritech from indigo squadron hunched over the huddled figures of   
the Saotome family, not only *willing* to sacrifice its life shielding   
them with its body but prepared and ready to do so.   
"General Saotome, are you alright?" Its loudspeakers blared. Four   
other veritechs crouched around them, their guns traversing for the   
barest hint of an outside threat. A ninety foot tall destroid with more   
armaments than a conventional battleship, or indeed a small country,   
parked above them.   
Ranma waved that he was fine.   
The sky above them turned orange with the reflected outrage of an   
atmosphere being pierced by a main gun blast. In that instant Peking   
ceased to exist. 

The silence that followed was deafening. 

Priory lifted the telephone, somehow immune to all that had gone on.   
"Yes, of course." He lowered the receiver from his ear, turning to the   
family. "The Emperor is on the line. Shall I tell him to hold?"   
Ranma rubbed brick dust out of his face with the back of his arm.   
"Take a message. We'll call him back."   
Priory went back to the phone, his muffled voice the only sound in   
the ensuing silence. Shortly he replaced the receiver. Accepting a tea   
service from one of the maids Priory went to serve the family, speaking. 

"The Emperor sends his earnest wishes for your good health and   
wishes to find an appropriate time convenient for you in accepting his   
surrender of all Japan. Would you like a crumpet with your tea anyone?" 

To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

Hello all you insane and greedy people who won't get off my back   
about getting you more Mirrors, you know (Yes, I *do* secretly love it). 

YES! I _AM_ on an energy high at the moment. _No_, you may *not*   
know the reason. Suffice it to say that it is nothing chemical. Not even   
a decent sugar rush. 

HELLO! All you dirty, pig-snorting animals that have the brains of   
one duck, don't you know. I am sending this out casually and without   
even a shred of revision. Expect it to change alot when the rewrite   
catches up with it.   
Yes, the rewrite is alive and kicking. Everyone important has   
already seen it, which tells you where you stand.   
Probably not in the top ten. 

As for this part, it is just a build-up. Yes! You HEARD me! This is   
going to get *WAY* more interesting, and probably less expected, from   
here on in. It will involve strange and unusual things involving ducks   
and inebriated weasels hanging on out on clotheslines, don't you know.   
There *may* even be a fish or two thrown in for good measure and   
probably weirder stuff, even than that.   
Hey, if Lucas got away with the Rebels being saved by an army of   
vicious, tool-weilding teddy bears you can expect me to get just as bad. 

And as for the stuff I didn't cover, you'll see. 

Love, and may the paternal care of ten thousand Genmas look over you   
always 

Skysaber   



	10. 10

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Ten   
Kasumi in Bed   
or...   
Ranma Gets Busted 

by Jared Ornstead 

Magical Disclaimer Pretty Ranma! 

"Jugem, jugem, gokoh-no-surikire, Sammy Ranma respects all others   
copyrights!" 

************************************************ 

Oh, yeah, slight lemon scent warning again 

Acknowledgements:   
First part of this section owes thanks to Talis D. Merrill of   
taalismn@tiac.net for some excellent suggestions.   
I'd also like to thank the Dragonbard at dragonbard@hotmail.com for   
understanding the direction I was taking this in, an offering   
suggestions throughout. 

** 

"Some folks dream of the wonders they'll do   
before their time on this planet is through.   
Some just don't have anything planned   
They hide their hopes and their heads in the sand. 

Now I don't say who is wrong, who is right   
But if, by chance, you are here for the night   
Then all I need in an hour or two   
To tell the tale of a dreamer like you. 

We all dream alot - some are lucky, some are not.   
But if you think it, want it, dream it, then it's real.   
You are what you feel. 

But all that I say can be told another way   
In the story of a boy whose dream came true   
And he could be you." 

** 

The incredibly talented mecha captain lucky enough to have inherited 

Blue Squadron after Ranma had graduated to a higher command brought   
forward a bag made of blankets, which he had his veritech deposit on the 

lawn before the newly promoted Marshal of Robotech Forces.   
General is fine for a big ship command, but when you're talking   
overall command of an entire planet's defenses, including generals and   
admirals and fleets, only a Marshal will do.   
Ranma fingered his new rank tabs as the blankets spilled open to   
reveal three ash-soaked figures.   
The veritech commander spoke. "Found them in one of the bunkers we   
opened. Enemy casualties were light, most of their systems were   
automated. There were about forty personnel in their command center,   
most of the staff had taken shelter, so primary losses were among their   
mecha pilots. Staff on hand identified these as the ringleaders."   
Ranma stepped forward and retrieved Kodachi from the tangle.   
Brushing ash from her face he carried her back to a cleaner spot. "Hey,   
Dachi-chan, you okay?"   
She shook her head, but lay her head against him, drawing strength   
anyway. Akiko had risen from the ash. Even in her bedraggled state she   
had the energy for pride.   
"How *dare* you handle my daughter so?! Release her this instant!   
You may have ruined our house and fortune, but I shall never allow you   
to touch my daughter!"   
Ranma sighed. "Lady Akiko, the feud is *over*. And in case you   
hadn't noticed, you lost. I recall that I'm within my rights to demand   
that all of you that won't renounce your name commit seppuku. I'm not   
*going* to do that unless you force me to. Frankly, I have nothing   
against you or your family. Your house is ruined because you chose the   
*wrong* moment to attack. If you'd withheld for another hour you'd have   
been aware of the danger, another day and we might have found a peaceful 

resolution. As it is you have no one to blame for your misfortune but   
yourself."   
Akiko seethed. "There will be no end to this so long as a Kuno   
lives!!!"   
He shrugged. "As you say, so let it be."   
Suddenly Akiko recalled that she was the one standing in ruined   
clothes, her estate and weapons smashed, beneath the guns of some   
amazingly destructive mecha under the command of her enemy. She Eeeped,   
eyes suddenly wide.   
Ranma was glowing softly, his aura lifting dirt and ash out of   
Kodachi's hair and clothes as he held her. Bruises and the marks of   
tears faded away from her. He spoke. "You have tonight to prepare   
yourselves. Tomorrow the Kuno clan ends. Take them away, let them clean   
and rest themselves."   
The very precise, very military guards in hardsuits dragged away the 

two Kunos not currently being held in Ranma's arms.   
Kodachi sobbed, raising her head slightly she implored. "Ranma,   
darling. I know the harm they have done you. But please do not kill   
them. On my life, as I have saved yours, please do not force my only   
family to die."   
Ranma had a grin. Turning to his mother he asked. "Mom, where is dad 

buried?"   
His careful mother indicated the location. Smiling, Ranma carried   
Kodachi over there, the others falling in behind. The two other Kunos   
disappeared behind the legs of a combat veritech.   
Arriving at the damaged shrine in a smoking grove, Ranma handed off   
Kodachi to one of the maids, then hauled out the Earth Staff, the Silver 

Crystal shimmering in its head. Without being asked Belldandy came   
forward and put her arms around his from behind, showing him how to hold 

and move it, whispering in his ear the right words. 

It was considered wisdom in the Emperor of Japan, when finding his   
country the subject of orbital laser barrage, swarmed by combat mecha   
they could not hope to defeat or avoid, seeing his most powerful   
neighbor, mainland China, humbled in an instant, that he elected to save 

his country and his people from destruction by offering himself in   
honorable surrender to his foe.   
Ranma made it easy for him. The event was of course televised. Ranma 

*could* have shown up in a set of old sweats, accepted the keys to the   
Imperial Palace and gone in to raid the kitchen. His power was such that 

it didn't matter what impression he gave to the public. If he chose he   
could conquer the planet whether they approved or not.   
It really didn't matter what kind of table manners Attila had, he   
had his huns.   
However, it would have humiliated the entire nation of Japan to be   
surrendered to a man in boxer shorts scratching himself on international 

TV. So for the benefit of the public, as well as the departing Emperor,   
Ranma put on a grand spectacle. Bell-chan helped him a little with the   
wardrobe. Well, actually she helped him *alot*. Urd threw in her two   
cents and Ranma was attired, literally, as befitted a warrior god.   
Better, in fact. Thor and crowd usually didn't bother dressing up,   
while people would be basing entire fashion lines off of Ranma's style   
for the next thousand years.   
Skeptics claimed the signs and miracles were just an elaborate show, 

but every shrine in Japan from household to temple gave off sweet scents 

and joyous caroling as Ranma accepted the throne on Imperial Hill.   
All that was extra. The show viewed worldwide was of an impressive,   
even staggering, array of military might. Fast assault landers pulled   
atmosphere-wrenching gut drops, braking at eleven gees or more to go   
from space to setting down on landing fields in mere seconds, troops   
spilling from their boarding ramps in fresh and sparkling style (despite 

the fact that the physics of their landing should have disabled or   
crippled every one of them) out into neat rows and files that were   
militarily precise, screaming of well-drilled parade form.   
Actually, they were the Zentraedi combat-rugby teams, and they   
*liked* that style of parade dress. But Ranma would never have *dreamed* 

of letting that be known. The real troops spent their time in coveralls   
seeing to their equipment.   
Fire-Support dropships orbited the area, more to be seen and be   
impressive than out of any real need to control the area. The Japanese   
police were allowed ground duty, along with all the forces who normally   
see to such things. This was a change of command, not suppression duty.   
Besides, if anybody pulled anything they'd find that Marshal Saotome 

was far more dangerous than they realized, all by himself.   
With an impressive background of awesome destructive potential Ranma 

went through the change of command graciously, then flew over to China   
to do the same there. Since they had pretty much of an absence of   
central authority he allowed the remaining military command to step down 

instead.   
They'd already gotten an official "Nice Shooting!" from Tibet.   
Anyway, Ranma was just figurehead for this maneuver. He went through 

the ceremonies so that the Robotech Diplomatic Corp could have less of a 

guilty conscience in utterly removing the former systems of government   
and putting in place something new and just, instead of old and corrupt. 

A description that could be used of all too many of Earth's governments   
at the time. 

Nodoka entered the private corridors usually reserved for servants,   
slipping into the head butler's apartment. He was reading with his feet   
up on the desk, the spine of the book held the logo of the Wayne   
Enterprises `Alfred' series. Catching a look at the title she noted with 

bemusement that it read.   
"How To Keep A Straight Face When The Young Master Brings Home A   
Fifty Foot Transforming Combat Robot."   
Nodoka giggled, causing the butler's attention to be brought to her. 

She laughed, seating herself. Those times when she confronted the staff   
in their quarters were rare, everyone deserves privacy, but the few   
times she had done it they'd got along very well. Her face was alight   
with amusement.   
"I don't suppose Alfred has advice on how to deal with household   
divinities?" She asked.   
Priory closed his book with a suppressed, but still very wry grin.   
"It is all the good instructor can do to advise on the more common   
household tasks." He airily indicated the roof above them. "I distinctly 

recall these ceiling tiles getting stepped upon by an instrument   
weighing not less than sixty tons. It was most disturbing to many of us   
when the young master's second bride put it all to rights. I shall have   
to give instruction on the merits of cleaning in spite of the fact that   
your employers could well dispose of dust and grime with a wave of the   
hand."   
Nodoka's smile was genuine. "I'm sure Belldandy has her limits, as   
do we all. Even Ranma, though what they might be I couldn't be certain." 

The butler was mock-stern in his expression. "If I were you I should 

speak to him regarding raising the dead before witnesses. I've had no   
fewer than three of the maids request that I address him regarding some   
lost relative of theirs or other. I shouldn't be surprised if the   
subject is risen at the next staff counsel. Which is all well and good,   
but somehow it troubles me to see a world where resurrection of family   
members is written into the service contract."   
The smile on Nodoka's face acquired an otherworldly quality. She   
closed her eyes to enjoy it a moment, then looked at her hands. "There   
are limits, I'm sure. Again, my son surprises me in that regard. So much 

has changed so quickly. I'm *so* grateful to have my husband back. Tell   
me, I came down here to ask, how are the staff reacting to all this?"   
The butler was very amused as he hefted the book he'd been reading.   
It was part thirty in a sixty-book series. He indicated his bare   
bookshelf. "I seem to have rather suddenly lent out my collection. The   
cook informs me that her, rather substantial, library on mythology and   
folklore suffered similarly. Seeing as how many of the maids have never   
indulged in deeper reading than the society column of fashion magazines, 

I should say they are adapting well to the shock. Indeed, I've sent a   
boy running down to the bookstore for half a dozen more copies of   
"Coping With Maniacal Villains And The Men Who Fight Them," which is   
book one of the series."   
Nodoka nodded, smiling again. "You may put the bill on my account,   
of course."   
Priory solemnly nodded his gratitude. In light of certain recent   
events some rather special arrangements had been necessary in order to   
acquire them. But in accordance with Book Three: "Never Let The Master   
Know You Had To Face An Organized Crime Syndicate In Order To Procure   
The Needed Materials" he said nothing.   
Nodoka stood up. She was intruding and had learned what she came   
for. With a proper nod of thanks she departed.   
As she left Priory again took out the dictation-recorder he had   
concealed. "Book sixty-one. Dealing with Divine Household Members. It   
should be noted that the more common variety of goddess is as helpful as 

her own distinct rules of behavior allow. Most pressing then, is the   
need to define those rules and accommodate them, while interfering with   
those more reckless members of the junior staff who might abuse such   
things as an auto-dialer set to Asgard..."   
Nodoka had failed to notice who co-authored half those books. 

Admiral Lisa Saotome conferred with her individual ship commanders   
in the large briefing room of the gigantic SDF-2. The fleet was in good   
order, military alerts were at a minimum as both surrendering nations   
were submitting well to the diplomatic corp's rebuilding of their   
governmental structures.   
The meeting was just about to close when a large monitor screen   
suddenly acquired a reflective shine and began to glow abnormally. The   
expanding patterns of light terminated when a young woman in a plain yet 

lovely house dress stepped out of the screen and stood looking around   
her.   
It was not conducive to the officer's confidence that the charming   
young woman was standing four feet above the floor, as unconcerned as a   
maiden picking flowers on a sunny spring day.   
The goddess picked Lisa out of the crowd and floated over with a   
huge smile on her face. "Lisa Saotome? I am the goddess Belldandy. I   
have some things I'd like to discuss with you, if you don't mind. But   
first, Kami-sama has informed me that you meet all the criteria for a   
mortal to receive a wish. Do you know what it is that you want?"   
The sweet expression of Belldandy's face was enough to weaken any   
barriers. Like those imposed by people not wishing to believe what they   
were seeing. Lisa found herself studying this young woman.   
One of the colonels interrupted. "Excuse me, but in light of what   
just happened I'd like to pass on reports given to me by our veritech   
squadron commanders. It seems that after the fight on the surface all   
battle damage was repaired to structures and buildings in the area. Our   
pilots report a young lady as responsible."   
Belldandy glowed at him, laughing softly. "Well of course. I could   
hardly allow that all those people who lived there who were not involved 

in the fighting to suffer, could I?"   
The innocence in her eyes was sufficient to draw agreement even from 

grizzled combat commanders, regardless of what she'd been saying.   
"Perhaps you and I should talk privately." Lisa suggested. She   
recalled seeing this woman in Ranma's company when she'd been down on   
the surface.   
Belldandy bobbed agreeably, floating to the side so that Lisa could   
rise and walk with her to an attached conference room. Lisa sat down   
behind the table, drawing the symbols of her own power around her, doing 

what she could to treat this situation normally.   
"Could we begin by you explaining how you know my husband?" Lisa   
asked once the door had shut and the goddess was in the room.   
Though Belldandy was used to far friendlier receptions than this, if 

she was put off by it no one could notice. She floated into a seat,   
allowing the atmosphere to fall into a scenario the mortal was more   
familiar with.   
"I work with the Goddess Relief Office. It is our job to come to the 

aid of mortals who are in distress. Ranma was found worthy to receive a   
wish, based on his efforts to always improve himself and make those   
around him happy. So it was decided that I would intervene and allow him 

a chance to alter his destiny."   
"You said mortals who are in distress." Lisa pointed out.   
"Well, yes," the goddess responded, bring a hand to her own heart.   
"You see, Ranma has led a life of great danger and hardship. It is a   
testimony to the wondrous beauty of his soul that he allows personal   
suffering to improve the man that he is, instead of becoming bitter."   
The gentle goddess looked to the side, fighting tears. "You see, his   
destiny in this world was not a pleasant one. A few days ago his enemies 

were to have assassinated his mother, then other things were destined to 

happen. It was not a pleasant life he was to have led."   
Lisa found herself believing the story. What had Dr. Lang warned   
her? The rules of this universe were not necessarily the same ones she   
was used to? Well, seeing goddesses had certainly been in that light.   
She found herself curious. "What wish did he make? Did he know if   
any of this were to happen beforehand?"   
Belldandy dried her tears, happy once again. "Oh no, you see, we   
have been taught to listen to the most casual comment when granting a   
wish, we even encourage them in mortals we aid. Because our father tells 

us that the true heart is often reflected best in what a person says   
when they are not being serious. If we were to listen only to the most   
well-thought-out, carefully prepared wishes then our office wouldn't   
need to exist. Heaven could just send a form down asking whether they   
preferred wealth, power, or a relationship with someone. Instead we find 

people are far happier if their inner thoughts are brought to the fore.   
It really only takes a minor change in a person's life for them to be   
feeling much better."   
Lisa blinked, she hadn't thought of that. "So what did he wish for?" 

She repeated.   
Belldandy smiled. It was her fondest memory. Clasping her hands   
before her she related. "It was his wish that I remain with him forever, 

helping things to turn out alright."   
Electroshock could get interesting reactions.   
Lisa threw both hands to the table. "He did WHAT?! Why the NERVE of   
that!..."   
Belldandy spoke softly. "I'm afraid that if he had made a different   
wish then you would never have met him."   
That calmed the female admiral instantly.   
Bell-chan went on. "You see, the Ranma you know actually started in   
a universe much like this one. He is not from your world at all. When he 

made the wish he had not yet been to your world. It was because of his   
wish that I was able to help him. I've done some things directly, but   
most of the work of any divine being is to manipulate threads of   
probability long before an action arises, so that the outcome will be   
what we desire. Without that wish, Ranma would have been trapped in a   
dimension far from this one, and would never have reached yours."   
Because if things had been allowed to proceed as originally would   
have happened, Ranma would have been presented with the bloody head of   
his mother. Instead of using the final wish of the destiny ring for   
power to return here always, it would have been for another thing   
entirely.   
"The result would have been a Ranma very lost and alone after he had 

been flung from this place." The goddess said.   
Lisa pondered this. "I wish that I could fully understand him." She   
breathed softly to herself.   
Gotcha! Belldandy crowed inwardly, even as her eyes closed and the   
marks on her face began swelling with light. 

*****   
Random Universe 4 

Breetai kicked back in a beach chair watching the last of the female 

volleyball teams compete for the day. There was sand in his shorts and   
his sun hat was skewed by the scars, but he was no longer required to   
wear a steel face mask either. Ranma had taken care of that, doing what   
even Robotech medicine had been unable.   
The former leader of all Zentraedi, and still one of the most high   
ranking officers in the fleet, gazed down fondly at the small girl   
asleep on his spread out T-shirt. Her little body nearly obscuring the   
"Greater Baja Nousjadeul-Ger Spike Champions" written across its front.   
Breetai was just under eight feet even reduced to human size, and his   
shirt was as good as a blanket for the young girl.   
Azonia ran up to him, her game finished. The ball held casually   
against one bikini-clad hip. "Lord Breetai," she bowed, then smiled.   
"How about a little game of one-on-one?   
He scratched his chin with a hand bearing a huge and ornate golden   
ring. "I must say, this human custom of speaking in strange paths still   
has me confused sometimes. Do you wish to say that you seek sex with   
me?"   
A volleyball rebounded off his head, then Azonia was in his lap and   
arms. "You stupid giant, what *else* would I have married you for?"   
He conceded the point. But motioned to the child. "Beloved, I would   
accede to your request, but I have a responsibility here."   
Azonia frowned. The sleeping child was beautiful, but that was not   
what had her upset. "Earth command should never have forced her to   
choose." She spoke of somebody entirely different.   
Breetai lifted his wife in his arms. "You know the truth of that as   
well as I do. But would you have stood for no fleet going after him at   
all? Lisa would not. Nor could she bear the thought of not knowing if   
ever they found him. It was not in her to do so. She is not the waiting   
kind."   
"But to force her to leave her children?" The thought was enough to   
pain the woman, even having only two of her own she could appreciate how 

it must have felt.   
"I do not like the law any more than you do, Beloved. Some of these   
humans are no better than races I would have destroyed and never given a 

second thought." The man-giant actually allowed himself an introspective 

sigh. "Which is precisely why they demanded that Saotome's heirs remain.   
I would never think to betray the Great Saotome, nor would any of my   
officers. One thing I *do* know of human society, our society, is that   
it is symbols which bind people together. Our friend was one of them.   
Now his children will serve in that stead. They could not stand to lose   
that as well as the man and his wife."   
"But how it must have hurt her so."   
He met his wife in the eyes. "And that is why I cannot even think of 

abandoning the care of her child. Lisa will take comfort in knowing that 

her friends here will do all in their power, *more* than all in our   
power, to see that they are safely raised. And today is my turn for   
little Misa. The rest are playing with their grandfather, Admiral   
Hayes."   
Azonia smiled at her husband. He had this habit of straying into   
unnecessary detail. *She* knew that a mother's father was called a   
grandfather, he didn't have to name him. Even though, strictly speaking, 

Zentraedi had no parents of their own, they were learning. Even a race   
of clones can adapt. Did Azonia not have natural born children of her   
own to prove it?   
"Tomorrow we can take them to play with Rick and Minmei, his wife.   
Perhaps Max and Myria would join us?"   
Azonia pouted her lip. She wanted her husband *now*. Then she had a   
thought and bounced out of her husband's arms. "Excuse me, my lord." She 

raced off, kicking up sand. In moments she was returning with Khyron in   
tow.   
Breetai could sense what his wife was planning. He eyed the officer. 

Khyron had been an unpredictable and dangerous officer, but he now was   
one of the finest combat-rugby players in the solar system. He noticed   
him wearing the traditional attire of a Thai kick-boxer.   
Breetai saluted Khyron's arrival with a glass of punch. "Nice to see 

you again."   
Khyron received the salutation and dropped to his butt in the sand   
next to the sleeping child. He tried to disguise a huge sappy grin.   
Looking down at the girl, he failed. "Thanks, Breetai. Your wife tells   
me that you need me to babysit for a few hours. I would be honored."   
Breetai stood up, collecting his wife. "My thanks Khyron. Just don't 

forget I was sparring partner with Ranma for far longer than you were.   
If harm comes to her..."   
"If harm comes to her I will be dead myself for having spent my last 

breath in defending her. You may relax your concern, Breetai." The   
kick-boxer said without looking up, tickling the sleeping girl's chin.   
"Do you think we'll spoil them?" Azonia asked as they walked away,   
speaking of all the children.   
Breetai grinned. "We'll see that they get sufficiently teased to   
offset whatever concern might be overweening. Besides, they will still   
have to deal with their stuffy grandfather and with Myria's cooking."   
In the sidelines, an invisible Belldandy smiled approval. She could   
inform her double that all was well. 

*****   
Universe B 

Ranma returned to the estate thoroughly disgusted with ceremony and   
willing to heckle the next person who was more than modestly polite. He   
found Skuld working on a veritech engine, a look of apparent glee on her 

face.   
He came up to her, feigning a better composure. "Hey, Skuld, could   
you please gimme a whack with your mallet again?"   
"Huh?" She pulled her upper torso out of the engine housing. "But   
Belldandy made me promise not to! Why do you want me to, anyway?"   
He wiped sweat off his brow, tossing his hand as if to indicate   
*everything*. "Look, Bell-chan didn't expect me to *ask* you, did she?   
I'm sure she won't mind. There's just some things I have to check on in   
that other universe, some promises I made. And I have to keep my   
promises, don't I?"   
The adolescent goddess nodded in firm agreement. "Uh huh, that's one 

of the things they *really* expect of us, you'll be glad you started   
early."   
Huh? Nevermind, it didn't matter.   
Skuld was already whipping out her mallet. "Now you have to come   
back to us. It should be easy if you talk to one of us there. You have   
the number?"   
He recited the telephone number Belldandy had given him.   
"Okay!"   
*Smack!* 

*****   
Universe A 

Ranma landed in the yard, late evening, early night. Not the best   
time to get in touch with people who had enough trouble getting up for   
school in the morning anyway. He could contact the Scouts and check up   
on them later.   
He poked his head into the Tendo kitchen. Kasumi was there washing a 

bare handful of dishes.   
"Oh, hi Ranma! I'm afraid all the others are out on an outing   
gathering materials for Shampoo's great-grandmother. They should be back 

by late tomorrow or so. Would you like some dinner?"   
Standard Kasumi, and one not upset by aliens blowing up her kitchen. 

Exactly what he'd needed to relax. "Thanks, Kasumi. Maybe in a while.   
Right now I'm going to do some thinking."   
She nodded and allowed him to shut the window, cutting her off from   
his outside world. 

Ranma sat upon the Tendo rooftop, playing a violin. The two most   
relaxing things for him were solitude and music. He needed both just   
then, and the act of creating music always seemed superior to mere   
listening.   
He scratched out a pleasant, simple tune to order his scattered   
thoughts.   
Kasumi opened the attic trapdoor and emerged with a tray of things.   
She padded softly over to Ranma and began to serve him. He lowered his   
violin, unsure of why she'd come.   
"Kasumi, I would have come down when I'd thought some things over.   
You didn't have to do this."   
She responded with simple dignity, setting out two places of a light 

meal. "You would have waited until morning, Ranma. You're very upset."   
He had to agree that this was so.   
He knelt across from her, looking at the light repast. He looked at   
her sideways. "This is about what Urd said, isn't it?"   
Kasumi served him tea, the formal set. "Yes, Ranma. I am to marry   
you."   
Somehow his hand would just not move. He gasped out a choked sob,   
leaping across the tablecloth to bury his face in Kasumi's shoulder he   
cried. "Kasumi, every person on this and every other *world* wants to   
marry me! Please," he raised wet and running eyes to hers. "Can't I just 

have someone to *talk* to?"   
She was a little taken aback by this. "Talk about what, Ranma? Is it 

something I can help with?"   
Ranma relaxed, sitting next to her. "Kasumi. I feel as if every   
person everywhere is depending on me for answers. I can do alot of   
things, but I can't do *everything!*"   
The dam was open, and the flood began to flow. Without even thinking 

about it Ranma slid an arm around Kasumi's waist as he unloaded his   
heart to her. "Can you imagine what it's like to be me? The first couple 

of dozen of lives or so sucked, I mean *really* sucked. I was jumping   
into lives where I'd done every dirty thing imaginable. I had friends   
lost or hate me, I'd been involved in some despicable stuff..."   
His voice lowered and his shoulders sagged. "Don't ever wish that   
everything was different, Kasumi. You won't like the results. I don't   
even know how long it took to clean up after that one."   
Ranma sighed heavily and gazed back up at the stars. "Do you know   
what the worst part is? Everyone's a stranger. No one knows what I've   
been through, or could ever know. I know people. I know what they'll act 

like in the most unusual situations, because I've *been* there and   
*seen* them. I've grown closer to some of these people than most guys   
can even imagine." He choked back a sob. "Then, a careless wish later,   
none of them remember a word of it. They don't even know that it   
happened."   
Kasumi, their arms intertwined, leaned into him, listening.   
Ranma could feel her support. "I love these people. They are my   
friends. But there's not one among them with whom I can share all the   
times and memories I've had with them. It's like living in a world all   
alone. I know all about them, but there's not a single person who can   
understand *me!*" He wiped back a tear.   
"I can be everything that just about anyone can desire, but the one   
thing I want." He choked back a sob. "No one can give me." 

Behind a faintly puzzled expression Kasumi's vast mental faculties   
churned over this problem with a power and efficiency that would have   
stunned any of her immediate family.   
Diagnosis: Emotional overload.   
Prognosis: Emotional burden had exceeded allowable parameters.   
Triggering a release state would permit the reestablishment of existing   
controls, returning patient to normal operating condition with the   
burden once again within allowable limits. Further treatment pending   
success of original.   
Translation: Get him over the crisis and he'll feel better on his   
own. Then she could find something to fix the real problem.   
Prescription: Male Release Valve #1. Other methods unacceptable as   
not time effective or having incomplete results.   
Translation: Sex. Nothing burned off emotional tension in men   
faster.   
Availability of Medication (required a whole second of thought):   
Yes, the cure was available. To one patient only, but this was the one.   
Initiate Administration of Treatment. 

Kasumi asked a question very softly, so softly that it grabbed   
Ranma's instant attention. "Ranma, have you ever made love to me in any   
of those lives?"   
Emergency gears kicked into motion in Ranma's mind, nearly sobering   
him from his hysterical state. "No, why?"   
Kasumi sniffled slightly, almost too slight to be noticed. "Because   
you talk of all the horrible things you've done..."   
Ranma seized her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Look,   
Kasumi, even at my most horrible I could never do that to you! You're   
the closest thing I have to a real friend anymore! You may not *know*   
what I've been through, but sure as anything you care. You *always*   
care! I think that counts as much as knowing anything anyway. You care   
about me regardless."   
Ranma stumbled with his words. "I told your other self that the   
world would be an awfully empty and lonely place without you, and I   
meant it."   
Her lip quavered. Tears began to form.   
He knew that he'd said something wrong.   
"I didn't mean that making love to you would be horrible, Kasumi. I   
just, I just *care* about you too much." That sounded lame.   
Her eyes did not believe him.   
He couldn't stand to see that level of self-accusation in her. He   
dropped to one knee before her, surrendering. "Anything you say, Kasumi. 

Ask me anything you will. Any question, any action, I will do it. Just   
please don't believe that you are *anything* but the most delightful   
thing that could ever happen to anyone."   
And he found himself fully believing of it.   
Kasumi let him take her hands. "Make me a woman tonight, Ranma."   
He sweated. But he'd just offered a blank check, and couldn't deny   
her anything anyway. Ranma took a big breath, raising his eyes to her.   
"I believe the wedding things are downstairs. Our parents were saving   
them for Akane and me." He took a second big breath. "But I don't think   
I want to do that anymore. Kasumi, can this at least be legal?"   
She nodded, pleased to find him honorable even in the face of being   
trapped in a dishonorable request.   
"Good, because if I soiled your virtue I'd have to kill myself. I   
have *no* idea how this will work with me living in another universe,   
but I promised to give you anything you asked. Are you *sure* you want   
this?"   
She bent down to kiss him.   
Answer enough. 

Kasumi was singing merrily to herself as she washed the counter tops 

the next morning. Nabiki was the first of the family to return to the   
house. She poked into the kitchen.   
"Say, sis. Any monsters stop by when we were gone?"   
Kasumi turned a radiant glow on her younger sibling. "No, Nabiki.   
None did. Have you had breakfast yet?"   
Nabiki nodded. "Yeah. Dad was too hungry to wait, so we ate at the   
station. Everyone should be along in a few minutes with the bags."   
Nabiki dropped the curtain back over the kitchen door when Kasumi   
nodded, then headed upstairs with her overnight bag. Nabiki was just   
skipping up the first steps when she came to an abrupt and total halt.   
Ranma was crawling down the stairs looking like he'd been in a   
hundred fights too many. His body was *DRENCHED* with sweat, his hair   
was even dripping with it, making little puddles on the floor. The   
exhausted young man was crawling on his hands and knees toward the   
bathroom, fighting weakly for every inch of progress.   
After seeing what Ranma had been able to handle before Nabiki could   
only assume that he'd just won Ragnorak, the battle where the gods   
themselves were reputed to be doomed to die.   
Nabiki dropped her bag and knelt beside him, yelling. "Kasumi! Come   
quick! Something's just killed Ranma!"   
The eldest sister wandered in, drying her hands on a dish towel.   
"What is it, Nabiki?"   
Nabiki was sitting beside what had once been a powerful martial   
artist. "Look at him! Something big must have gotten him when you   
weren't looking! Quick! You'd... No, wait a minute. *I'd* better call   
Dr. Tofu."   
Kasumi blinked, then smiled. "Yes, that's right. I'd like a   
pregnancy test."   
Nabiki dropped the phone handset. Chills shivered up and down her   
spine. She turned to Kasumi with a bland expression masking stark,   
screaming horror. "What did you say, sis?"   
Kasumi knelt and lifted Ranma up from the floor. He seemed to be   
recovering slightly. "Ranma is just tired from making love to me all   
night. I'm sure he'll get his energy back when I've had a chance to   
bathe him."   
Nabiki backpedaled, lifting an arm as if to defend herself,   
grimacing in fear.   
Kasumi bobbed her head in joy. "Yes. He had *alot* more energy than   
I expected. We only got done a half hour ago."   
The smile on Ranma's face looked to be permanent.   
Nabiki's reality filters refused to accept the scene before her as   
real.   
That thing smiling before her could not be her sister, could it?   
"I opened the windows to air out your room, Nabiki. The air in there 

was getting a little stale."   
Nabiki facefaulted. "You used *my* room to do your dirty work?"   
Kasumi smiled, nodding. "Only for a couple of hours, though. I'll   
get the bedding washed this evening. But I don't know what we're going   
to do about your floor, replace it, I guess. I just finished cleaning   
the kitchen and was going to start on the bathroom. I'll have to get to   
Akane's bedroom this afternoon, but there wouldn't be much point in   
doing mine. Ranma and I are just going to get it dirty again."   
Nabiki had a rare moment of bravery. She didn't faint.   
"Are you sure you didn't get the guest rooms as well?" Nabiki asked   
in disbelieving shock.   
Kasumi smiled. "Oh, my. Of course we did! But Mr. Saotome can sleep   
down in the living room for now and we don't expect Happosai back for a   
number of days yet. So I'll have a chance to clean everything." She   
beamed. "Making love in piles of lingerie was really quite   
exhilarating!"   
Nabiki fainted. 

Urd wiped the sweat from her brow. Cleaning up after the two of them 

had taxed even *her* magic, despite recent practice. Urd turned sternly   
to glare at Ranma and Kasumi. "Look, I like it. I even approve. But even 

*I* would have broken the news to your sister a little differently."   
Belldandy put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Now, Urd." She froze 

the two mortals with a flare of light. "Is it really that bad?" She   
asked suddenly in concern.   
Urd pointed a finger. "Ask the expert."   
Skuld looked *very* concerned. "We've got a crossover rip. I can't   
fix it."   
Belldandy looked at the two mortals. "We've got to ask father."   
"You know what he'll say." Urd supplied.   
Belldandy sighed, deflating slightly. "Yes, I suppose I do. Still,   
we must warn him."   
Urd put her hand on her younger sister's arm. "He already knows,   
Bell. We got the call from him, not the other way around."   
The three goddesses looked at each other.   
"Damage control?" Skuld asked.   
Urd looked at Belldandy, then nodded. "Yeah. I'll handle this end.   
Bell, you take the other. Skuld can create the gateway."   
"What about *them?*" Skuld inquired of the two mortals frozen in the 

middle of the Tendo living room.   
"Ranma and his wife will wake up after we're gone." Belldandy said,   
reassuring her little sister. "For now it's best that they don't know.   
We've got alot of work ahead."   
The three goddesses vanished.   
Outside a borrowed car pulled up. Four men scrambled out wearing tan 

coveralls, one of them was holding a sensor.   
"I can't believe things like this happen on our vacation!" One   
groused, coming out of the car with bulky equipment strapped to his   
back. Two others were lifting similar kits from the trunk.   
At least one seemed ready to treat it casually. He sauntered up to   
the first two, getting his straps straight. "So what? Another four-fold   
crossrip? Another minx in too tight tights? Look, if it's another   
hundred-foot marshmallow man we can handle it."   
"Who ya gunna call?" Ray asked, as the last of their members joined   
them.   
"Ghostbusters!" They shouted, running as one into the Tendo dojo. 

Ranma wandered out of the house, holding his head. Unbeknownst to   
him he was glowing with a soft nimbus.   
"Got him!" Someone shouted. Ranma looked up just in time to dodge a   
red and yellow stream of energy which promptly destroyed several rocks   
behind him. His attacker was wearing some kind of image enhancing device 

over his eyes. Without thinking Ranma blew him over the wall with a blue 

chi attack.   
Another energy beam smacked into his side, blowing Ranma into the   
koi pond.   
"That last shot took something outta him!"   
"It's a girl." *zap*   
"It's whatever it wants to be." *crack* *sizzle*   
"Maybe now you'll be polite to guys with positron colliders!"   
Yeah, right. When Ranko had tried talking they'd just ignored her,   
as if she didn't exist as anything but a target.   
Ranko couldn't *believe* how those weapons were affecting her,   
taking huge chuncks out of her chi like Kuno hacking watermelons. Even   
coming close the beams sapped her energy worse than her best chi blast,   
and the energy streams seemed to consciously seek her out.   
And utter exhaustion is not the best state to be forced to fight in. 

Then one of the bands of light wrapped around her, pinning her arms   
and scorching her flesh. Two other bands swiftly joined it around her.   
"You've got it! Don't cross the streams. Bring her down, easy,   
easy... I'm sliding the trap under it."   
Ranko didn't know what that device was they slid under her, but the   
rest of their weapons were working and she didn't want to change this   
one not doing what it was supposed to. Gathering the vestiges of her chi 

she blew it into small, smoky bits with a tiger ball.   
Two of the scientists looked at each other. "Are they allowed to   
*do* that?"   
"I'll go for another!" One of the scientists called.   
"Hurry, Igon. This isn't like what we normally face every day!"   
Ranko watched the figure get into the car and drive off. Her own   
energy was utterly spent in thwarting the energy beams from ravaging her 

flesh into blackened unrecognizability.   
There weren't many things Ranko could do without *some* chi energy   
to draw on, and when she was bound as well her options dropped to one.   
It was the only one she knew of that didn't rely on her own power to   
cast.   
She had hoped never, in her entire life, to use this spell. It was   
that dangerous.   
Composing herself in the cage of energy beams Ranko could sense the   
power reaching to her already across the void. This time when she lifted 

her voice in song it was not her who was providing the deep and dark   
organ music that seemed to flow from the very stones around her.   
** 

"In sleep he sang to me   
In dreams, he came   
That voice which calls to me   
And speaks my name 

And do I dream again?   
For now, I find...   
The Phantom of the Opera   
is there...   
inside my mind." 

(A voice arose, sourceless and unidentifiable, seeming to rise from the   
very stones) 

"Sing once again with me   
Our strange duet...   
My *power* over you!   
grows stronger yet... 

(Even as the Ghostbusters looked around themselves in a state beyond   
apprehension Ranko knew there was no turning back. It just wasn't   
possible anymore. The voice sang on) 

And though you turn from me   
to glance behind...   
The Phantom of the Opera   
is there...   
inside your mind." 

(Ranko prayed she didn't hurt anyone, least of all herself. She replied) 

"Those who have seen your face   
draw back in fear...   
I am the mask you wear." 

(Phantom)   
"It's *me* they hear!" 

(Both)   
"Your/my spirit and your/my voice   
in one combined!   
The Phantom of the Opera is there!   
Inside your/my mind..." 

(A ghostly chorus arose)   
"He's there,   
The Phantom of the Opera!   
Beware,   
The Phantom of the Opera!" 

(The Phantoms voice rose smugly even as the Ghostbusters reached a   
conclusion and sought to cross the streams of their mighty weapons)   
"In all your fantasies,   
you always knew...   
That man and mystery," 

(Ranko flexed contemptuously and flung the energy beams off from her,   
singing)   
"Were both in you." 

(Both joined again as darkness began to form in a void around Ranko)   
"And in this labyrinth   
where night is blind   
The Phantom of the Opera is here   
inside my/your mind!" 

(Ranko)   
"He's there,   
The Phantom of the Opera!" 

(She began vocalizing strangely, her voice growing more and more   
extravagant as the darkness form a palpable aura around her) 

**   
The Ghostbusters scrambled for their weapons. But their prey was   
already gone. 

To be continued? 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

It gets worse. *Believe* me, it gets worse. 


	11. 11

From: White Pheonix jared@netuser.com>   
To: Celeste Byrd nshampoo@gold.interlog.com>   
Subject: Mirrors 11   
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 1998 12:47 PM 

Stripped, formatted, should be okay. Let me know if you have any problems. 

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Eleven 

Phantom of the Ranma 

by Jared Ornstead   


Our Friendly Neighborhood Copyright Monster Says On Copyright Law: 

"Crunchy Chrunchies are the best   
Look delicious on your chest   
Feed them to unwanted guests   
Stuff the mattress with the rest!" 

And now! Yes, I have finally stamped upon enough copyright toes by now   
that I   
could be sued into the thirty first and one half century! 

************************************************   
A Place in the Past 

Organ music, omnipresent and overpowering, echoed strangely through the   
dark,   
dank halls laid out in a labrythine crypt. From out of the shadows a woman   
stepped, her gown was as white as her pale flesh, the glorious cascade of   
bright   
red tresses falling across her waist the only color in that dark and   
morbid   
place.   
The woman addressed something that wasn't there. A voice in a mirror.   
But she   
was used to speaking to mirrors.   
"What is the price for my redemption?"   
The redhaired woman's tones rang out with such beauty as to stop the   
voice   
and collapse the knees. Sirens of the sea in all their glory could not   
sing with   
such beauty as this woman's sighs of despair.   
A ripple of light could be imagined beneath the reflective surface.   
The woman's eyes could not be seen through the glorious cascade of hair.   
But   
she lowered them anyway.   
"My memory? Four hundred years of darkness and singing, music and tears.   
They   
are all I have. Must I truly forget them also? I have nothing else. Not   
even...   
he... knows more of my past than that. Why is that the price?"   
There was no answer. It was merely so.   
The redhead raised her eyes, they were of such blue as to evoke tears of   
agony at their loveliness, standing out clearly in the perpetual night of   
the   
hidden crypt.   
"Very well."   
There was the vaguest flicker of light, merely an illusion of a staff   
and a   
woman with green hair, but when it passed the pale maiden was no longer   
there. A   
single hair of red floated softly to the empty white gown pillowed on the   
gray   
stone floor.   
The organ music came to an abrupt and horrid halt. 

*****   
Universe C 

There were one thousand, six hundred steps to the Masaki shrine. The old   
man   
knew, because he walked them sometimes several times a day. He was the   
caretaker   
of the shrine, and today his heart was happy because his daughter was   
coming with   
him. He knew she had a busy schedule with school. Still, it brightened   
his days   
when she could come and be at the shrine with him.   
Achika waved her bag, her long hair swirling in the breeze around her,   
still   
wearing her dark blue school uniform.   
"Calmly Achika," her father reproved, secretly enjoying her enthusiasm   
and   
energy. "The shrine will still be there when we get there, you know."   
For a response she merely smiled at him, lighting up the day. His child   
added   
an electric quality to all she did, and was one of the brightest joys in   
her   
father's life.   
Soon, too soon to suit him, the thousand six hundred steps were behind   
them   
and the father had arrived at the shrine. He stopped rock still. His   
daughter   
nearly collided with his back.   
"What is it, father?" Achika asked, trying to peer around him.   
"A visitor." He replied. "A most unusual one." The gray haired man   
started   
forward to where a young, naked woman was passed out on the grass. She   
had red   
hair, some bruises around her body, and two marks of distinction. The   
first was a   
beauty that went far beyond the natural, surpassing even that of   
woodsprites or   
water nymphs of which the legends spoke so highly. The next that the long   
and   
delicate sigh issuing from between her lips had, even in sleep, a power   
that   
seemingly bypassed the ears and directly affected a person in ways that   
were   
difficult to define.   
"I believe this lady has been wounded." The father concluded. He raised   
his   
head and the sun glinted off his glasses. "Perhaps there is some spirit   
at work   
in our forest who is unfriendly to strangers."   
The maiden groaned, stirring on the grass. She looked up at the pair   
above   
her and blinked.   
"Are you alright?" Achika inquired in concern, maneuvering around her   
father   
to touch the girl reassuringly on the shoulder.   
The girl blinked. "I think so. Where am I?" Her voice was soft and   
lovely,   
yet with a timbre that sent thrills of pleasure to the soul.   
"The Masaki shrine." The father replied, seemingly unaffected. "Do you   
know   
how you came to be here?"   
The redhead blinked again.   
"No."   
The father frowned. "Hmm... What is your name, child?"   
The naked girl looked a bit confused. "Name? I... I'm sure I had one."   
She   
blinked again. "Who am I?"   
The father nodded. "It would seem there is some spirit at work here who   
has   
denied you your memories. I will call you Orchid, for your hair and for   
the   
mystery of your origin. Would you like to stay here with myself and my   
daughter?"   
The redheaded female nodded. "Okay." 

Orchid took to the temple tasks as if born to them. She would sweep,   
clean   
and polish for hours without complaint. In fact her hosts had to be wary   
of   
letting her work too hard. She seemed to expect alot out of herself, more   
than   
any one person had a right to.   
On the second day Orchid spent with them she wanted to help Achika in the   
kitchen. She was a bit clumsy at first, but that soon wore off. Soon she   
and   
Achika were preparing every meal together, and Achika was even learning   
some   
useful tricks and dishes from her new friend.   
It wasn't long before Orchid became indispensable to the household. The   
floors and things she cleaned would stay bright and dust-free for days.   
The meals   
that she cooked with Achika were the best any of them had ever eaten.   
Well,   
Orchid *said* they were the best. She had to have learned how to cook   
them from   
somewhere, and most of the recipes were not in any of their books. She   
and Achika   
seemed to spend equal parts of the day learning from and teaching each   
other.   
The fifth morning Orchid saw Achika and her father at kendo practice. She   
didn't saw a word, merely going out into the forest, emerging a while   
later with   
a freshly cut wooden practice sword. She joined them at forms. Father had   
to   
pause and teach her. She knew instinctively many of the proper movements,   
but was   
lacking in the specifics that made sword practice truly formidable.   
Orchid took to things so easily that Achika and her father might have   
gotten   
jealous were it not impossible to dislike her. Orchid exuded a happy   
friendliness   
with a complete lack of competitive instinct. She was happy when others   
were and   
so she labored to keep them that way. They found her a rich delight in   
their   
lives.   
Achika had so much time now with Orchid helping around the house that she   
began to heat extra water for their baths. A few kettles would heat a   
tepid tub   
to warm enough to bathe in, but a few pots beyond that was heavenly.   
The sensation of a hot bath was delicious beyond description to the girl.   
It occurred to Achika, after she had dried off, that Orchid had never   
enjoyed   
one. Orchid had always used whatever was there. Tepid, warm, or cold   
seemed the   
same to her. She never heated water for her bath, even once bathing when   
frost   
rimmed the tub, as if she'd never experienced anything warmer and had no   
idea of   
the difference. This, Achika vowed, could not continue. Orchid was far   
too sweet   
not to reward in turn, and the least she could do was show her the   
pleasure of a   
hot soak.   
After putting the kettles on, Achika went looking for the redhaired girl.   
Orchid was not far away. The ponytailed Masaki daughter sauntered up,   
hoping   
to surprise her. Then she saw what her friend was doing.   
Orchid had one hand stretched out, touching the limbs of a stunted tree.   
A   
blue aura glowed from within her palm and seemed to lick out over the   
leaves and   
bark. As Achika watched the tree swelled and straightened, throwing out   
straight   
branches and long twigs, pulling its trunk upright and gaining a dozen   
feet in   
height.   
Orchid began to gather apples from it.   
Achika approached her friend cautiously. "Orchid?"   
The redhead turned to her with a brilliant smile. "Hi! I just finished   
fixing   
this tree. Want an apple?"   
Achika accepted one of the splendid red fruit. She tilted her head in   
curiosity. "How did you do that?"   
Orchid frowned at her fingers. "I get the idea that I used to be able to   
do   
alot of things before. I don't know what, exactly. Kendo practice helps   
some. But   
I seem to remember these things only as I do them."   
Achika blinked. "What about the tree?"   
Orchid giggled. "Well, I was feeling sorry for the way it was, and pretty   
soon I got an idea about how to make it better. Do you want to learn how?"   
Not trusting Orchid was an impossible feat. Achika nodded brightly.   
Orchid   
frowned in thought, then seemed to reach a conclusion. She reached out   
with both   
hands and touched her friend lightly on the temples.   
"Now this may feel a little weird." The redhead warned. Blue energy   
flared at   
her fingertips.   
Achika gasped sharply as new feelings and avenues opened up within her   
mind.   
They were tender, stretchy like muscles that were new and not ready for   
much work   
yet, but still she felt the energy within them.   
From out in the bushes two strange figures were watching what happened.   
One   
addressed the other.   
"We're too late, Tenchi."   
The boy crouched beside the platinum-haired female pulled a branch off a   
bush   
in helpless frustration.   
Achika blinked and blushed slightly. This was so... new. Suddenly she   
could   
*understand* the plant before her. Trying harder she got a twinge from   
her new   
mental muscles. So she relented, drawing her senses back in where they   
belonged.   
But that feeling of closeness with the plant did not desert her. She   
resolved   
that she would have to learn and experiment more with this strange gift.   
Achika had almost forgotten the bath.   
"Orchid... this is *wonderful!* I... I thank you. I never felt anything   
like   
it before in my life. But I'm being selfish. Here I am letting you help   
*me* and   
I was going to treat *you!* Come along inside. I've got water boiling to   
give you   
a nice hot bath."   
"Strike Two." Mumbled the platinum haired woman hidden in the brush.   
The boy alongside her raged in frustration. "Aarrhhh! We *gotta* stop   
them!"   
The woman looked at her companion, then considered. "I might be able to   
do   
something. Wait here, Tenchi." She stood up and teleported, appearing in   
the   
kitchen of the Masaki home.   
"Seeing as how they don't have modern plumbing just yet. I'll just pour   
out   
what they have heating." It took her two seconds or less to pour out all   
the   
water and teleport away from the kitchen. Achika entered with Orchid in   
tow   
moments later. She lifted the pots, looking ashamed.   
"I'm sorry, Orchid. I must have let it all boil away. Here, I'll just   
heat   
some new." She began filling the teakettles from the pump, with Orchid   
automatically helping her. This time they sat and talked while the kettles   
heated.   
"Uh oh." Two pair of eyes spied in the window. "I'm sorry Tenchi, but if   
they're going to sit like that then I can't get to the water without being   
noticed."   
"Perhaps *I* could do something to help in this effort." A third voice   
said   
primly. 

The pair in the kitchen were interrupted by a knock at the front door.   
Both   
rose to answer. "No, Orchid, it's okay. I'll get it." Achika ran for the   
door.   
Orchid sat back down, looked around for something to do, and began   
chopping   
vegetables. Eyes watched her from outside.   
Achika went and answered the front door. "Um, hello?" She asked   
quizzically   
at the purple-haired girl who waited there.   
"Hello." The newcomer beamed. "I am Ayeka. Is this the Masaki shrine?"   
Achika shook her head happily. "No, it's at the top of those stairs   
there. If   
you'll just go through that gate and climb you'll go right to it."   
"Uh..." Ayeka desperately pondered about how to draw this out. "Perhaps   
you   
could show me? I'm not very good with directions."   
Achika blinked. It would take rare skill to get lost on so simple a   
route.   
Well, maybe this girl had the world's worst sense of direction. She   
shrugged. "If   
you wouldn't mind waiting. I have something I have to do here first."   
Ayeka got flustered. "Oh." Thinking fast. "If you could just show me to   
the   
bottom step? I'm sure I could make it from there."   
Well, that wouldn't take long, would it?   
  
"Tenchi, now's our chance. Ayeka's gotten rid of your mother. You   
distract   
this one and I'll make sure he doesn't interfere with our future."   
"You won't hurt him, will you?"   
Platinum hair regarded him. "What, do you *want* him becoming your   
father? Do   
you *want* this person to just waltz into our past and marry your mother?   
We've   
come back in time to stop him, Tenchi. Do you care so little for your own   
dad   
that you'd prefer this stranger to him? How can your own dad compete   
against this   
guy? He can't do it, Tenchi."   
"That doesn't mean he deserves to die, Ryoko!"   
Ryoko shrugged. "Whatever you want. I'll just tell you that the most   
effective way to take him out is probably not asking him to leave. I   
mean, *you*   
wouldn't go if it was a woman *you* were in love with. Would you Tenchi?"   
Tenchi sagged. He knew that he would not.   
"Just don't hurt him too much, okay Ryoko?" 

Orchid was combining vegetables, meat, and some convenient hot water   
into a   
savory stew when a knock came at the back door. She put the pot on to   
cook and   
went to answer it. There was a black haired boy there, about fifteen   
years old.   
The boy bowed his head. "I'm sorry I had to do this."   
Forgotten combat senses flared to full life in Orchid, and she leaned   
out of   
the way of an energy blast from behind. The blast came within inches of   
the   
teenager. He squawked and dove out of the way, giving Orchid a perfect   
opportunity to dive out the door and gain the room to fight whoever was   
behind   
her. She vaulted end over end over the yard, coming to in a combat stance   
facing   
the door.   
It nearly got her killed.   
A huge blast of energy came once again from behind her. A glance over her   
shoulder as she twisted and leapt to the side gained her a glimpse of her   
opponent. A platinum haired woman about her age, who faded out from plain   
sight.   
Invisibility or teleport? Another energy blast from her most vulnerable   
angle   
proved it was the latter. Well, one could deal with the other. Orchid   
faded out   
of sight.   
"Huh?" Ryoko came to a halt, floating in air with her hands blazing with   
energy. She was confused for less than a second, but that was enough.   
"Fierce Tiger Ball!!!!"   
A ball of bright blue energy defeated Ryoko's defense field and impacted   
her   
side, tossing her twenty feet to land on the lawn.   
"Ryoko!" The boy came running out onto the field. He reached her side and   
checked her. She was recovering fast. With a determined frown the young   
man   
activated an energy sword of his own. 

"This really was nice of you to help me out like this." Ayeka thanked.   
"Who   
would have known that my knee would give out halfway up? I'm sorry to   
trouble you   
so."   
Achika rolled her eyes, the other girl's arm around her shoulder,   
supporting   
her as they climbed the last step. Her father came out to greet them.   
"I thought I sensed something out in the forest. Have you seen anything,   
Achika?"   
Achika shook her head, relieved of her burden as Ayeka slid to sit down   
on   
the ground. "I left Orchid at the house. I was going to show her what a   
hot bath   
was like."   
Father and daughter looked down in the direction of their home as   
explosions   
rippled the woods around it.   
"Don't go there!" Ayeka pled, leaping to her feet.   
Achika looked down in disgust at the girl's 'injured' knee. Then both   
father   
and daughter began running toward the disturbance.   
  
Orchid was frustrated and in danger. She *knew* that she knew more about   
combat than this, but her skills and knowledge were returning to her too   
slowly   
and she was taking punishment.   
"How dare you try to molest my mother!" The young man swept his energy   
sword   
through where her waist had been. Orchid had dodged out of the way only   
to catch   
a blast in the shoulder from the other unidentified person.   
Orchid was losing, and it was a feeling she didn't like.   
The one called Ryoko laughed as her latest energy blast knocked Orchid   
from   
her feet. Tenchi brought his sword down to bite the earth as Orchid   
rolled out of   
the way.   
The kid gloves had come off awhile ago.   
Tenchi and Ryoko, both experienced fighters used to working together,   
swept   
their swords about in an inescapable arc.   
The redheaded girl ceased to be, her body disappearing in a corona of   
light.   
As the scraps of empty cloth fluttered to the lawn the grimace of combat   
rage   
seemed to freeze on the young man's face, then fell apart in shambles.   
The light   
sword in his hands fizzled into nothingness and he grabbed his head in   
his hands.   
"Oh! Ryoko, what have I DONE!?!"   
  
*****   
A Place in the Future   
  
Two officers walked down a corridor, shoulder to shoulder. One, bearing   
markings of the medical branch, was asking the other. "So what's this all   
about,   
anyway?"   
The taller, ginger-haired man shrugged his shoulders. "We got a call from   
fleet headquarters. Apparently there was some kind of diplomatic function   
interrupted by the near assassination of one of its members."   
The shorter man scratched his hair. "Well, I can't see why they can't   
handle   
it on their own. Calling in a starship on such a minor issue is   
insulting. Say,   
what are you grinning about?"   
The captain turned to confront his officer, his grin was infectious.   
"Bones,   
have you ever heard of Nyuchezu IV?"   
The doctor couldn't say that he had. Then he had a flash of memory. "Say,   
isn't that one of those Amazon cultures? The ones we mostly avoid?   
Probably   
expect us men to wear flea collars, I'll bet."   
"Actually, they're participants in starfleet." The captain keyed the   
door and   
a lift car opened up for them. Both stepped inside, taking handles. "In   
fact I   
met one of them while in the academy. They're not nearly so bad as you   
describe."   
The captain had a knowing smirk, which the doctor studied.   
"Hoping to renew an old acquaintance?" The shorter man asked.   
The smile didn't change any more than the ginger hair. The captain   
stepped   
out as the doors whooshed open. "No Bones, I was hoping more to see my   
daughter."   
The doctor stood still so long he nearly didn't make it out the lift.   
When he   
did he rushed forward and grabbed the captain's arm, somehow acquiring a   
grin of   
his own. "Jim, do you mean to say..?" The grin had spread itself from ear   
to ear.   
"Well, I'll be damned! You son of a gun. When was the last time you've   
seen her?"   
The captain ducked a bit and admitted. "Actually Bones, this'll be the   
first   
time." He stepped through the doors of the transporter room swiftly after   
saying   
that.   
A black-haired alien awaited them at the controls of the machine.   
"Welcome,   
captain. The planet reports your party as ready to depart. Shall I beam   
her   
aboard?"   
"Energize, Mr. Spock." Came the curt order.   
Beams and fields of controlled energy played across the pad of the   
transporter platform, after a few moments revealing a demure young lady   
dressed   
in an exotic fashion.   
"Why you sly son of a gun." The doctor was impressed.   
The maiden standing uneasily on the transporter pad was the most stunning   
creature any of them had ever laid eyes on, even accounting for their   
exotic and   
varied travels over hundreds of worlds. Her eyes were a blue that seemed   
infinite, a dazzling display of depth and color that captivated and   
entranced.   
The maiden's hair, while at first merely a gorgeous red, conveyed a   
wealth of   
inflection, adding a whole spectrum of meaning to what had previously   
been merely   
one color.   
Then she collapsed.   
  
"Healthiest girl I ever examined." The doctor declared, putting away his   
instruments. "Aside from residual effects from some surgery a few weeks   
ago she's   
the healthiest person I ever saw." He drawled. "In fact most of us could   
learn   
something from her conditioning. I tell ya, if even half the folks in   
starfleet   
had their organs in that kind of shape I could retire and go live on a   
beach   
somewhere. And her muscle tone?"   
The doctor gestured back to the maid lying still on the table, heartbeat   
and   
other functions appearing on the monitor above her. He turned back to the   
other   
two men. "Well, Jim, I gotta hand it to ya. Your daughter could armwrestle   
Godzilla and expect to win. You must have better genes than I give you   
credit for   
to turn out an offspring like that."   
"But is she truly his daughter?" The Vulcan asked.   
"See for yourself." Bones went over to another monitor, calling up the   
samples of genetic code. The computer began high speed comparisons,   
flashing   
results as it went. "About what you'd expect for a father-daughter   
relation."   
The science officer found that he had to agree. He cocked an eyebrow.   
"Fascinating. Then our beloved captain is indeed fortunate in his own   
genetic   
structure."   
"Well, *I* coulda told ya that." The gruff doctor replied, crossing his   
arms   
over his chest.   
Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise went over and sat on the   
edge of the bed where his daughter lay, exploring the feeling being a   
father of   
such a one gave him.   
Doctor turned to alien. "I think we'd better leave them alone."   
The alien bowed. "For once you may be right, Doctor. We have analysis to   
do   
on the case."   
It took the girl less than a day to become the darling of the whole   
ship. She   
was kind and sweet and gentle. And even though she never spoke a word she   
had a   
smile that would pierce you right through.   
Then they got another visitor from the planet. 

"What do you mean she hasn't spoken for days?!!" Kirk demanded.   
The woman he has interviewing was adamant, but reasonable. "That's just   
it,   
James. The laser wounds were to her chest and arms. There was no damage   
at all to   
her vocal or neural structure and the trauma was not that deep. We   
thought that   
if we asked starfleet to send her father around then that would supply   
enough   
impetus for her to speak."   
James crashed his hand down on a table. Mildly, if such a thing was   
possible.   
"I can hardly believe she hasn't said *anything!*"   
The woman crossed her hands in her lap. "Well, there was one thing. But   
we   
had to run it through the computer a few times before we could understand   
any of   
it. Would you believe she spoke it in ancient Japanese?"   
Jim's prowling reminded her of a caged lion. He rounded on her, coming in   
intently. "What did she say?"   
They were interrupted by the doctor entering their quarters, wiping his   
hands. "Well..."   
"One moment, Bones." The captain turned back to the woman. "What did she   
say?" He repeated.   
The woman blinked her eyes. "She called for her daddy. Which is why we   
sent   
to starfleet for you." The lady got up and walked out of his quarters.   
The captain sank heavily into a seat. The doctor went to a cabinet and   
began   
to pour both of them a drink, speaking as he did so. "Well, I've run   
every test   
and analysis I can think of on that girl, even some I made up. There is   
*absolutely* nothing wrong with her. She merely chooses not to speak."   
The patient accepted the alcohol without comment. The doctor drawled on.   
"She's in the cafeteria now, if you'd like to see her."   
The captain was out of his seat and out the door like a shot.   
  
In the cafeteria there were a line of automatic food dispensers. One   
merely   
inputted the code for the type of dish one wished to eat, and the   
dispenser would   
provide nutrigen cubes that would closely approximate its taste and   
flavor.   
Hey, *you* try stocking a cupboard for hundreds of hungry people on a   
five   
year mission.   
Right now a demure, redheaded young girl had discovered that the keypad   
where   
one inputted menu choices made tones when you pushed the buttons. There   
were   
three to six digit codes for most foodstuffs, but with so many numbers   
available,   
and the inevitably limited selection, most codes were blank, and the   
machine   
politely informed one of an invalid choice with a low tone.   
Orchid had somehow found a way to be playing a multi-part harmony by   
pushing   
button after button. She had only ten choices of notes, and every seventh   
one was   
always the same low tone as the machine tried to inform her that her   
order was   
unavailable. But nonetheless the girl was managing to wrench from it a   
melody   
that was almost hauntingly beautiful.   
The captain ran into the room to find a crowd had gathered to watch his   
daughter play. He sidled up to Spock.   
"What is she doing?" He whispered.   
The alien whispered back. "Improvising a tune that would be a classic by   
any   
standards. I am having the ship's computer record this, I believe it   
would be   
referred to as a Jam Session?"   
Kirk spared his alien friend a look. "Right." Then he noticed the food   
cubes   
placed neatly in a stack to his daughter's left. "Why the food?"   
The Vulcan replied. "Sour Notes, I believe they would be called. Even   
with   
the number of options available your daughter does stumble across   
combinations   
that the machine interprets as valid. Since they were disrupting her   
harmony, as   
well as causing an interruption as she paused to stack them, I temporarily   
disabled the food dispenser on that console."   
The redhead concluded her melody and sat down to hungrily devour the huge   
stack of nutrient cubes.   
The Vulcan's eyebrow shot skyward and he crossed his arms. "Then again,   
perhaps she was merely hungry and exploring her options. If you will   
excuse me."   
He left in a huff that had Jim heartily amused.   
  
Right after he had left lieutenant Uhura, the communications officer,   
arrived   
to drag Orchid back to her own quarters, prattling on, very friendly,   
talking of   
all the instruments she had there and asking if the girl wouldn't mind   
showing   
her just a little something on the guitar. Idly amused, Captain Kirk   
followed   
them out. Uhura didn't seem to mind.   
Bones was passing by when they arrived at Uhura's place. When the door   
opened   
and Uhura led them inside, going to get her guitar, Orchid froze utterly   
and   
instantly rooted to the spot. The doctor grabbed the captain's arm to   
prevent him   
from interfering.   
"Stop, Jim! She's have some kind of psychological reaction. Don't   
interrupt   
her, she may be starting to remember to use her voice."   
There was indeed a powerful look of recollection on Orchid's face as she   
took   
a few longing steps forward, extending a tentative hand toward a poster   
on the   
wall.   
Uhura came back with the guitar and saw what she was doing. "Huh? Why   
that's   
just..."   
"Shhh!" Came the chief medical officer's insistent command.   
The communication's officer joined the other two adults and whispered.   
"Why   
that's just a poster of a cartoon character my niece gave me."   
"What's the character's name?" The captain whispered.   
"Ukyo."   
Orchid was weeping openly now, touching the poster with tender longing.   
From   
nowhere a very soft musical score began to play as Orchid raised her face   
and   
sang. When her voice was raised it instantly rooted every man, woman and   
alien on   
the ship into awe-struck immobility. The beauty of her soft voice   
piercing walls,   
bulkheads and souls with equal impartiality.   
** 

"You were once my one companion.   
You were all that mattered.   
You were once a friend and guardian...   
Then my world was shattered.   
  
(Orchid sobbed and caressed the poster's feet)   
  
Wishing you were somehow here again   
Wishing you were somehow near...   
Sometimes it seemed if I just dreamed   
Somehow you would be here...   
  
(a tear-streaked face was raised to the colored drawing)   
  
Wishing I could hear your voice again,   
knowing that I never would.   
Dreaming of you won't help me to do   
All that you dreamed I could!   
  
(a flash of memory of dark halls arose to haunt her, but clashed with the   
bright memories of Ucchan)   
  
Passing bells and sculpted angels   
cold and monumental   
seem, for you, the wrong companions   
you were warm and gentle.   
  
(now crying beyond control, yet not faltering in her vocal control at all,   
Orchid pressed her cheek against the image of her beloved)   
  
Too many years fighting back tears...   
Why can't the past just die?   
  
Wishing you were somehow here again...   
knowing we must say goodbye...   
Try to forgive... teach me to live...   
Give me the strength to try!   
  
**   
Orchid seemed willing to just sag against the poster and cry, then   
suddenly all instruments and power died across the whole ship. Darkness, a   
palpable aura, began to reach out a caressing wave.   
Ghostly light began to illuminate Orchid, all other crewmembers held   
helpless. An enticing song began to sound, accompanying a compelling   
voice both   
dangerous and mesmerizing.   
** 

(Phantom, calling)   
"Wandering child   
So lost, so helpless...   
Yearning for my guidance. 

(Orchid reacted with frightened horror at this voice, but the light of   
intelligence seemed to partially fade from her eyes) 

(Phantom)   
Have you forgotten your angel?"   
  
(Orchid's face had become partially hypnotized, and her song seemed to   
reply   
without her conscious choice for it to do so)   
  
"Angel... oh, speak...   
what endless longings,   
echo in this whisper?"   
  
(The Phantom's voice gained triumph as it sang along)   
"Too long you've wandered in winter   
far from my far-reaching gaze..."   
  
(Orchid, now rising again to her feet)   
"Wildly my heart beats against you!"   
  
(Phantom, now gloating)   
"Yet your soul obeys!"   
  
(Both)   
"Angel of Music!   
I/You denied me/you,   
turning from true beauty...   
Angel of Music!   
  
(Phantom)   
Do not shun me   
(Orchid)   
My protector!   
(Both)   
Come to me/your   
strange angel!"   
  
(Organ music had, by this point, become a dark and compelling tide through   
the hearts of all aboard, driving emotions before it in and endless   
whirlwind of   
longing and fear, changing mood)   
  
(Phantom)   
"Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation...   
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination...   
Silently the senses, Abandon their defenses...   
  
(Orchid began to walk along a bridge of light that was not there, going   
from   
the room she was to a labyrinth she did not want to be, yet unable to   
resist)   
  
(Phantom, urging)   
Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor   
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender   
Turn your face away, from the garish light of day   
Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light   
and listen to the music of the night.   
  
Close you eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams!   
Purge your heart of the life you knew before!   
Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar!   
And you'll live, as you've never lived before...   
  
Softly, deftly, music shall surround you...   
Feel it, hear it, closing in around you....   
Open up your mind! Let your fantasies unwind!   
In this darkness which you know you cannot fight.   
The darkness of the music of the night.   
  
(now completely mesmerized, Orchid walked steps through ship walls,   
somehow   
still visible to those who looked for her, as if she and the starship no   
longer   
existed in the same reality, yet overlapped)   
  
Let your mind start a journey to a strange, new world   
Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before!   
Let your soul take you where you long to be!   
  
(the Phantom continued much quieter)   
Only then, can you belong to me..."   
  
**   
But the Phantom had made a mistake, one jarring enough that Orchid   
snapped   
open her eyes. Unable to control her body any longer she turned pleading   
eyes   
back to the captain, her father.   
Kirk strained against the wall that she had passed through, but that   
reality   
held him. He pounded the wall and looked in sadness after his   
disappearing child.   
Finding her lost courage at last those blue eyes in Orchid's face   
rekindled   
their fire, and she jumped off the bridge of light on which she'd been   
walking...   
"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The voice of the Phantom screamed, the   
music   
cut out instantly and released the darkness, the instruments, and the   
crew to a   
shuddering restoration to their original reality.   
  
*****   
A Universe with a Past and a Future that I will Not Further Identify at   
the   
Moment   
  
Two figures ran swiftly through the rain. One bounced merrily off of   
walls,   
letting off soft giggles as she came to light on fence posts, tree tops,   
anything   
and everything that might or might not support her light weight. She was   
wearing   
a Chinese flower print tunic and pants.   
The other struggled vainly to keep its great mass in sight of the wee   
girl   
bouncing around like a happy forest sprite. Both carried great packs. In   
fact the   
girl's was larger and more weighty than the one carried by the large   
panda. But   
she carried herself with the effortlessness of a gust of wind and the   
panda had   
an impossible time keeping up with her.   
Mind foggy from exertion, the great bear found that the girl had stopped   
for   
awhile. Catching up, the animal leaned against a wall and let its tongue   
hang   
out, panting, too tired to even recognize where they'd landed.   
The girl rang the bell.   
A moment later Kasumi answered the gate, holding an umbrella over   
herself to   
avoid the light rain. The little girl beamed up at her with an expression   
that   
would make light in a sunless void.   
"Oh, my. You don't look very much like a fiance, do you?" Kasumi asked,   
lowering herself slightly so she could look in the girl's eyes. The child   
was   
somewhere in her teens, obviously past puberty, yet shed a happy   
innocence that   
struck a similar chord in Kasumi. The homemaker found an instant and   
compelling   
liking for the girl, then noticed that she was soaking wet.   
Two fingers flew to Kasumi's lips. "Oh, my. You're soaked clear through!   
Why   
don't you come inside? I can get you some hot tea while we dry you off   
and put   
you in some clothes that aren't dripping wet."   
The solar smile altered in a very accepting and thankful way, but seemed   
to   
add a note of request. A slight glance aside at her panda...   
"Well of course you can bring your pet panda in!" Kasumi radiated joy.   
"Why   
don't we put him on our nice covered porch to rest, hmm?"   
The redhead bobbed a nod that would have made Hitler pause and try to   
see the   
advantages of being a nice guy. With a little gentle fussing she guided   
the bear   
in and let him sag on the deck under the overhang, out of the rain. Then   
the   
happy girl literally bounced over to the door and allowed Kasumi to fuss   
her in.   
Soun and Nabiki met their sister just at the door, eager in their   
anticipation, yet unwilling to venture out into the rain. "Kasumi," Soun   
demanded. "Was that them? Are they here?"   
Kasumi hustled in her little water sprite, helping to brush some of the   
excess water out of her clothes. "No, father. It was just this girl with   
her pet   
panda. I didn't want to leave her out in the rain and so I invited her in   
with   
us. You don't mind, do you father?"   
If Kasumi's face and vocal plea were the female equivalent of a shotgun,   
the   
radiant little girl turned the force of a 5 megawatt laser on the man.   
"Well of course she can stay! She can stay for as long as she likes! She   
can   
take a room with us if she wants to! What do you say, little girl?"   
A lightning peck on one cheek had Soun firmly wrapped around the little   
girl's finger. Nabiki was standing in the blast radius of this enormous   
storm of   
cuteness and innocence and tried to shrug it off. But her wits fled her   
when a   
happy smile fell on her anyway.   
"Say, Kasumi." Nabiki asked her sister. "I can go start the tub. She'll   
*never* get dry in those clothes. There's even an old dress of mine that   
I think   
will fit her."   
"In the attic there are trunks of things we used to wear when we were   
smaller, Nabiki. I'm sure that you could find some things for her there."   
Kasumi   
was helping the redhead to undress, not wanting her to track water all   
over   
their home. "But could you get me a towel first?"   
"Sure thing, Kasumi." Nabiki went off. Soun had already left to pace   
around   
wondering where his friends were. So Kasumi was left alone with the   
redheaded   
angel who allowed Kasumi to mother her.   
Kasumi found herself singing softly.   
  
By the second time Nabiki had walked through the parlor carrying a towel   
Serena had finally gotten enough curiosity to look up from her comic and   
ask her   
older sister why.   
"For the little girl Kasumi found, of course. Didn't daddy tell you?"   
Serena shook her head, ponytails waving. "Tell me what? There was that   
stupid   
business with the arranged marriage, but he hasn't said anything other   
than that.   
I think he's off in the dojo reading that silly postcard again. What's   
up?"   
"Nabiki? Do you have that other towel?" Kasumi's cry cut off the   
discussion.   
"Be right back." Nabiki informed her younger sibling, taking the soft,   
fluffy   
towel to where Kasumi was trying to arrange a little less water on their   
water   
sprite.   
In a few moments three girls came into the Tendo parlor. Kasumi and   
Nabiki   
assisting a radiant young redhead with a towel tied modestly around her   
middle.   
Her hair was still plastered from the rain, and now wild from Kasumi's   
attempts   
to dry it. The girl didn't really look all that young, either. Sure, she   
was a   
little shorter than Serena, but she was better built than any girl in the   
family   
and most of the ones at school. In fact Serena would have to place the   
girl at   
about her own age.   
Then the redhead directed a look toward her and the blond in ponytails   
suddenly realized what made the girl seem so small and young. There was a   
cheerful innocence about her that not only made her appear youthful, even   
childlike, but there was some way about her that grabbed hold of a   
fistful of   
feminine instincts and immediately made you want to mother her. Then the   
look   
adapted itself and everyone present was overwhelmed with a desire to play   
with   
her. They played catch and tag and squealed with delight when they caught   
each   
other. Ribs were tickled, pillows fought with, games were made and cast   
away.   
The three older girls collapsed on the furniture, winded and happy, and   
the   
little bundle of energy whipped into and out of the kitchen like a ball   
of light,   
emerging with a tray holding cups of hot cocoa for everyone.   
There was such a warm bliss of happy tranquility about the room that wild   
deer appeared out of nowhere and began to graze out on the lawn. The rain   
had   
stopped and a feeling of serene and wonderful contentment hung over the   
room. One   
of the girls, soaking in the radiance, idly wondered.   
"I wonder when our fiance will get here?"   
At first the redheaded girl did nothing more than continue to sip hot   
chocolate and lie around with the others. Then she rose and, giving a   
quick peck   
on the cheek to everyone, grabbed her pack and her panda and was gone,   
even   
before the others were aware of what she was going to do.   
Disappointment arose and even as the family was sitting up there came a   
knock   
at the front door.   
Everyone was startled into full wakefulness. Kasumi sat bolt upright and   
flew   
about the room gathering up empty mugs and dishes. Nabiki became   
horrified at the   
state of her hair and kimono, while Serena, oddly enough, was the most   
composed   
of all. Soun was so glad at the presumed appearance of his friend that he   
ran to   
the door without waiting for anyone else to get the room or themselves   
into   
acceptable shape.   
There was some talking coming from the door, then Mr. Tendo came back   
into   
the room leading two strangers. One was obviously a much older man,   
looking tired   
and winded from a great deal of running. The other was a black-haired   
young man   
of about their own age. Jaws dropped and even Kasumi acquired a rosy   
blush.   
"Sorry about this." Ranma apologized, indicating the shredded remains of   
what   
had once been an open-fronted shirt. "I got attacked on the way here by a   
couple   
a hundred women all trying to take a piece of me home with them."   
Kasumi took a step toward the bare-chested and splendid male figure   
right out   
of a woman's dreams. "Perhaps I could take that. I'm fairly good at   
mending   
things."   
No one there could believe the tattered rags could ever be made into a   
shirt   
again. Then again, that's not what Kasumi wanted it for and ever girl   
there knew   
it. Ranma met her eyes, and they knew that he knew it, and he handed her   
the   
shirt anyway.   
Nabiki's scan of the man, with only a *little*, well *alot*, of feasting   
her   
eyes on the way, concluded with the information that he was dressed in   
swashbuckling attire that not only fit him well, but combined with his own   
surreal attractiveness into a whole that came close to lethal.   
Then she noticed his sash was ripped.   
"Um, you know, Ranma." Nabiki hesitated, the forged on. "I'd like to   
lend a   
hand myself. That sash of yours looks torn. Mind if I mend it?"   
There was an eyebrow raised for her that made her weak in the knees, but   
he   
removed the article in question from around his waist and handed it over.   
Nabiki   
clutched it to her chest in wonder.   
Serena still hadn't picked her jaw up from the floor. Too bad for her as   
he'd   
run out of easily removable items of apparel. Pausing to gain visual   
permission   
he slid into a place at the family table.   
The fathers sat down at the table also, having concluded their   
mini-discussion. "Well, now." Soun began. "This is my good friend."   
"Genma Saotome." Ranma's father introduced himself with a slight bow.   
"And   
this is my son."   
"Ranma Saotome." Three fluttering hearts met his introductory bow. Nabiki   
helped Serena to sit down before she fell down.   
Soun crossed his arms, happy and serious. "Now, we have to determine   
which of   
you will get to marry Ranma..."   
"I should be the one!"   
"Pick me!"   
"No, let *me* be his fiance!"   
"Girls!" Soun practically growled. "Please, now, let's not be   
unreasonable   
about this! There's only one of him..."   
"Dad! Whoever marries him will get to carry on the dojo, right? That   
means a   
martial artists should get chosen." Serena singsonged.   
"Like *that* matters, little sis. Ranma *already* knows martial arts,   
doesn't   
he? He'll need someone to do the books and take care of the economic   
success of   
the dojo."   
"I really think Ranma is a very mature type. He'll want to settle down   
swiftly, and that means he'll need someone to take care of him and   
already knows   
how to care for a house."   
"GIRLS!"   
  
  
To be continued...   
  
************************************************   
************************************************   
  
Author's Notes:   
  
Been a while, longer than I would have liked anyway. I am praise powered   
in   
occasional ways and this is one of them. We'd have been proceeding much   
more   
slowly had it not been for all those fans urging me onward.   
  
By now you're all tired of hearing of the rewrite. Well, the first four   
parts   
are in test version right now and are ready to be web-posted soon for   
feedback.   
I'll be sending copies to two sources for sticking on their sites (many   
thanks to   
Fiona Lim for doing the maintenance and updating work on my own website,   
which   
should soon be ready for public viewing). 

Universe C, I know you're curious. Well, the answer is simple. I   
promised you   
that none of the *random* universes would ever be revisited (though I was   
pleased   
by that one flashback, I may do another).   
What this means, simply, is that we will be going *back* to C sometime   
soon,   
I hope. This thing has a life of it's own and if it doesn't get somewhere   
then   
you'll know that's because it's wiggled off on its own.   
It does that on me.   
Since the story is becoming a hyperactive serpent on steroids that   
explains   
some of the twists as well. Abide with me. I'm having fun and that's all   
I ever   
set out to do.   
As for the Unidentified Universe. Well, I don't feel like telling you   
anything more at the moment. Can't a man have some privacy? Sheesh.   
(Pulls shower   
curtain over screen). 

I decided not to kill this. I'll allow it to run (or slither) for as   
long as   
it's still worth chuckles. This doesn't mean that I'll not get to the   
triumphant   
ending that I had planned, it just means that it likely won't stop there.   
An epilogue on an epilogue on an epilogue as it were. I suppose that   
makes it   
a continuing series in the appropriate record books. Congrats, it got the   
better   
of me.   
  
  
Skysaber 

Reality is stranger than fiction, and so we write stranger things to   
compensate... 

A vicious cycle. 


	12. 12

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Twelve   
Who Ever Said Fixing The Past Was Easy?   


by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber   


To disclaim or not to disclaim, that is the question. Whether tis nobler   
to suffer the meticulous indignities of outragious copyright law, and by   
our suffering not offend them, or to face with manly courage those who   
would leash lawyers and cornucopias minions of hell upon us for our   
courage. Bringing to pass small good save for that we have not bowed down   
o'r noble heads to the blade of spiritual execution.   
Ahhhhhh! I must have them BOTH!!! 

************************************************ 

That Universe That I Perversely Haven't Named 

Attention Flag.   
Passive receptors have detected anomaly.   
Dedicate 00.00005173 percent reserve processing power to investigate.   
Substance identified.   
Food.   
Kasumi's nose twitched in her sleep. 

Dawn's rosy chariot raced her brother Apollo into the sky, winning as   
always and painting the sky with a gorgeous mixture of colors that her   
brother would banish in his usual fit of pique.   
Life was not normal in the Tendo household. In the guest room a generous   
slab of fat and lard snored on one of the futons, exhausted from the   
previous day's journey. In other places the change was more profound. 

Kasumi's passive receptors kept sending her alert messages. At first she   
merely disregarded the information. But repeated scans determined that   
there was not only food, but it was quite *good*. When the brain stem got   
ahold of the information her mouth went ahead and began to water. Finally   
getting a physical response, her nose became encouraged and redoubled its   
efforts.   
A quiet corner of Kasumi's brain kickstarted with a neurochemical shout   
of glee. Usually the higher functions were online and the background   
processors didn't get much work. Finally having something to do, the   
quiet corner researched and analyzed.   
Working by scent alone that part of the brain determined first the   
existence of tasty edibles, then went on to catalog their exact distance,   
composition, flavor, and the fact that there was a fresh rose on the tray.   
The brain stem smoothed its way into the analysis and reflexively flexed   
Kasumi's hands. If there was food, she had to have cooked it. Right? But   
a quick scan of the data paths revealed that no food-making commands had   
been sent or obeyed within the past several hours.   
The nose screamed that the food was fresh, and *good!*   
Having no ready conclusions, the back corner of Kasumi's grey matter   
sighed, nudged the higher functions, passed on its information, and shut   
itself down.   
Kasumi blinked and opened her eyes, raising her head up off her pillow.   
The door to her room was closing, though audio tracts did a swift review   
and no sounds had been detected then or now. Rapid diagnostics and a   
bird's song assured her that her ears were working perfectly. The morning   
visitor had merely made no noise.   
Her nose sent another scream, wanting vindication. Obediently, Kasumi's   
eyes tracked over to her desk. There, by her bed, was a breakfast tray, a   
note, and a flower in a vase.   
Her stomach, a sluggish organ but a powerful one all the same, chose   
right then to clue into all those alert messages the nose had been   
sending and soon became ravenously hungry.   
Kasumi slid out of bed, engaging a valuable sub-program that would   
direct her left arm to feed her while she examined the rest of the tray.   
She picked up the letter as the first bite reached her lips. The paper   
was momentarily forgotten as a wash of taste sensations nearly   
overwhelmed her.   
A hand flew to her cheek.   
"Oh dear!"   
With a guilty glance around to make certain no one was watching Kasumi   
leaned into her plate and began to inhale her meal. 

***** 

Universe C, Future, Flashback 

The Masaki shrine had seen worse days. Between space pirates, bounty   
hunters, royal princesses, mad geniuses and the occasional spaceship that   
looked like a cat they managed to get in a fair amount of trouble.   
It was one of those rare peaceful days. Tenchi, often at the center of   
all this trouble, reluctant suitor of from anywhere to two to five women   
(depending on whom you asked) and occasional savior of the universe had   
just finished washing his mother's tombstone and was headed back to the   
house, bucket in hand.   
Ayeka, royal princess of Jurai and one of the most prominent of Tenchi's   
love interests, was out hanging wash in the yard. Ryoko, space pirate and   
general villain extraordinaire (retired) was sitting on the rooftop and   
was actually contemplating helping out when Tenchi walked into the yard.   
Finding a better option, Ryoko made ready to pounce upon the boy in a   
space pirate neck squeeze (not related to the more famous and popular   
Amazon Glomp, trademark and patent pending), when the boy yelled out and   
flew across the yard, screaming, upside down and helpless...   
...only to be caught and stopped in time by a hastily materialized   
energy net.   
Washu exited the house holding a remote control box. "Well, here I was   
just performing testing of my latest invention, the Universe Stabilizer,   
when all of a sudden there crops up a need." She pointed both fingers to   
her cheeks. "I'm such a GENIUS!!"   
Ayeka and Ryoko came rushing over. "Washu, what is it?"   
The self-proclaimed greatest scientist in the universe began typing on   
an invisible keyboard in mid-air. "Something has happened to alter our   
past. Fortunately I was researching a problem related to this when it   
happened, or my device would not have been available in time to be of   
assistance."   
The force affecting Tenchi released and the boy fell heavily to the   
ground. He sat up rubbing his head and asked. "What is it? What's   
happened? Huh?" His query trailed off and he looked up in surprise and   
wonder.   
Achika, his mother, had exited the building with a load of wash. Looking   
around herself at everyone she asked. "Tenchi, who are all these people?   
Are they friends of yours? And why do you look so different? Where are   
the Chinese clothes that you usually wear? You know you remind me so much   
of your father when you wear them."   
Tenchi stammered. "M... Mom?"   
Noboyuki, Tenchi's father, rushed out of the building at the sound of   
her voice. His gape of surprise froze there and became stuck even as an   
unseen wind seemed to blow dust from his body.   
In two seconds the man had disappeared utterly, wiped clean in a   
cleansing wind.   
"Father!" Tenchi screamed out, staring at the spot where it had happened.   
Achika, not having seen Noboyuki at all, came rushing over to her son.   
"Tenchi, what's wrong? You know your father isn't here anymore. He died   
saving us all, you know that."   
Tenchi stammered, not quite grasping it. He pointed. "But... but, I just   
saw him right there!"   
Achika turned swiftly to the spot. "Ranma? Ranma, are you there? Oh,   
*please* let it be true!" She ran over to the location, cupping her hands   
to shout. "Ranma?!" She pivoted back to face her son. "Was he in boy or   
girl form at the time?" Not waiting for an answer she ran off again,   
crying. "Ranma! Come back, we need you!"   
Washu grabbed Tenchi by the ear. "C'mon, we need to do some talking."   
Soon the four of them were in Washu's lab. The scientist plugged her   
remote unit into a power charger and addressed them while punching keys.   
"I think we can clearly assume that the universe has been changed   
somewhere in our past, and it would seem to focus around Tenchi's father."   
"But, dad..." Tenchi couldn't get it.   
Washu directed a *look* at him. "Tenchi, it would appear that in this   
present, your mother did not marry the man you know as your father."   
"What!?!" Boy, princess and space pirate cried out simultaneously.   
"But what happened to Noboyuki?" Ryoko asked.   
"It would appear that he did not fit this version of reality and was   
erased. The same would have happened to Tenchi had I not been able to   
stop it. Unfortunately, my machine did not have the power to save two   
people at once."   
"Then why are we still here?" Ayeka inquired.   
Washu keyed another control, looking back over her shoulder at the   
princess. "Because our fates are all tied to Tenchi's. If this temporal   
effect is able to rewrite him to the Tenchi of this new timeline, all of   
the rest of us will follow.   
"Would that really be a bad thing?" Ryoko asked. "I mean, Tenchi's mom   
seems alot nicer than his father."   
Washu leveled a look at her daughter. "It would be bad because we have   
no way of knowing if any of us will still know him. You heard his mother   
ask if we were strangers. Are you willing to give up every chance you   
might have of marrying him?"   
Could any decision be more clear?   
Ayeka nodded primly. "I will talk with Tenchi's mother and ask how she   
first met this 'Ranma.'"   
Ryoko rose with feline style. "I'll find out more about this boy-girl   
thing. She's got to have some notes about it someplace, maybe in a diary."   
Washu nodded. "I'll keep Tenchi here under surveillance. We haven't got   
much time, so get back here quickly, both of you. I'll finish my work on   
a time travel machine and try to get you back to the critical juncture.   
Temporal irregularity is a difficult thing to straighten. It's as easy to   
make things worse as better, but we haven't got much time to get our   
plans right. Just hurry back with the critical information and we'll   
worry about the rest if we have to." 

*****   
Universe C, Past 

Katsuhito arrived on the scene just moments ahead of his daughter.   
Dropping to one knee he bent to examine the tracks. When Achika ran up   
behind he held out a hand.   
"Stop!"   
Her father so rarely spoke with urgency that even the slightest hint   
brought total and instant obedience from his daughter. She watched as he   
traced hints of footsteps across the yard, following a slight pattern   
until he would up at Orchid's discarded rainment. Finally he lifted the   
slashed garment and motioned Achika over to him. She came over   
immediately.   
Katsuhito held the garment for his daughter to see, waiting for her   
reaction. Swallowing her fear Achika examined it visually.   
"Well, what do you see, daughter?"   
Achika gulped. "Two cuts across the chest area, both very deep."   
"Anything else?"   
She shook her head helplessly.   
Her grey-haired father lowered the garment, adjusting his glasses. "Very   
well Achika, now what do you *not* see?"   
Suddenly it came to her. "Blood!" The daughter cried happily. "There's   
no blood! That means she must still be alive!"   
Katsuhito had hold of his daughter's arm. "Not necessarily." He replied   
sadly. "Achika, what I am about to say may seem a little strange. Come   
with me to the holy tree of our shrine and I shall make it clear to you."   
Achika remained in a daze until they arrived at the very root of the   
tree, where it stood overshadowing its own small lake.   
Her father walked calmly across the stepping stones. Standing beside the   
bark he turned to face his daughter. "Achika, for years I have pondered   
whether to tell you of this. Now, because of my hesitation Orchid may   
have been caught helplessly in the middle of something she did not belong   
in." He lowered his face gravely. When he raised it a new fire had lit   
behind his eyes.   
"Achika, your ancestors were not from this world. They were from a far   
away planet named Jurai. A great warrior, named Yosho, abandoned their   
royal family and came here seeking peace. Whether or not he found it is   
of no great concern, what is important now is that Orchid may have   
suffered for his having done this. You see, the royal family of Jurai is   
not without its enemies."   
Achika's gaze was attentive, she did not interrupt. Her trust   
overweighed her concern.   
Katsuhito allowed the moonlight glinting off the lake to momentarily   
frost his glasses. "You and I practice a sword art that is unknown on   
this planet, refined by generations of Jurain Knights and warriors who   
lived hundreds of years to perfect its technique. Other than you and I,   
and Orchid, none other has had training in this art here on this planet.   
It would be impossible for another to be familiar with its practice and   
be native to Earth. Yet when I was viewing evidence of the battle where   
Orchid was taken one of her attackers was clearly using this form."   
Achika regarded her father. Never in her whole experience had he said an   
untrue word. She did not believe he would begin now. She trusted him in   
every thing that he said.   
Her father nodded, accepting this and acknowledging it without word.   
"Now daughter, when I said our family was not without its enemies, you   
must believe that we have powers of our own as well. Spaceships and   
military have their place, but they are easily circumvented. Our family   
has remained the ruling force in the galaxy because the bloodline of   
Jurai's royal family carries with it power far beyond the norm. With it   
we can perform feats like no other. There exist many weapons that only a   
descendant of Jurai's bloodline can employ. I speak of this to you now   
because of the danger. For the weapons that cut down our Orchid were of   
this type, and of the type employed only by the most dangerous of space   
pirates. There is one other thing. The maiden who distracted you from the   
house wore on her brow a band of Jurain craftsmanship."   
Achika's gaze hardened. Unkind thoughts about the woman who had led her   
away so that Orchid could be trapped were prominent and forceful.   
Katsuhito nodded. "Those that cut down Orchid were of Jurain bloodline,   
as we are. Nor can it be denied that they had with them a space pirate of   
enormous power, equal to one I had thought safely locked away. That is   
something that I shall look into. But for now I see the need to begin   
another stage in your training. You must learn to use this Jurai royal   
power. I had hoped you would never see the need, but it seems that this   
hope was vain. Once before the family of Jurai was divided against   
itself, and the universe suffered as a result. But Orchid was a soul   
without ill intent. And any who would callously destroy her must in turn   
be resisted if the galaxy is to remain a place worth living in. We must   
arm ourselves. Then we will seek out the cause of this evil and   
extinguish it."   
Achika nodded with fervent commitment.   
"Come here, child." Her father offered a hand. She came forward   
unhesitatingly and accepted it. He made her to stand by the tree and then   
addressed the wood.   
"Funaho, begin memory tapes. From this time forth you are to answer   
questions that my daughter will put to you. Let her know the history of   
Jurai." Katsuhito met his daughter's eyes. "That will be enough to start   
you."   
With purposeful stride Katsuhito marched off through the hologram the   
tree had begun forming in proof of its otherworldly origin. There was a   
certain cave he had to revisit. A cave where a space pirate had been   
hidden. A space pirate whose methods had been *exactly* duplicated in the   
attack on Orchid.   
If the pirate still slumbered perhaps it was time he awoke Ryoko to   
question her about her rivals. There was no way those who had ambushed   
Orchid would escape his punishment. Even if it meant alliance with a   
pirate. 

*****   
The Universe I Haven't Identified Yet 

Dear Kasumi   
Since you've been so kind in making my father and myself comfortable our   
first time in town I'd like to thank you by pampering you for a day.   
Sleep in if you like. I've got your list of chores. You may rest assured   
that they'll all get done. 

Ranma 

Kasumi returned the letter to her lap and looked at the now-empty tray.   
The vase was one she knew they didn't own, and she couldn't remember   
seeing anything like it in catalogs or stores. It seemed like colored   
glass inside and out, but whenever the light caught it just right dancing   
figurines of incredible detail could be seen etched within the strata of   
the perfectly formed glass.   
Several minutes of playing with it, holding it steady and triggering the   
light display again and again, had yet to show the same figures. It was   
like a hundred scenes had been cut one on top of each other, each   
requiring a minute difference in the light to set it off from all the   
others.   
Kasumi knew that Nabiki would place its value at something like seven to   
eight times their entire family's combined assets. Kasumi knew that it   
was irreplaceable.   
The maker's mark on the bottom said simply 'Ranma.'   
Taking the sole, yellow rose that had been in the vase with her, Kasumi   
left the vase behind and went downstairs. Sounds of scrubbing encountered   
her as she came to the top of the stairs. When she was halfway down Ranma   
looked up from where he'd been cleaning their floor with a brush and a   
bucket of warm water. He tilted the headband he'd tied on to keep the   
hair out of his eyes and smiled up at her.   
A part of Kasumi's mind was screaming. 'Handsome, and useful too!'   
Instead of acting anything out she merely smiled radiantly back at him.   
Her cocked his head adorably, remarking on her smile. "But soft! What   
light from yonder stairway breaks?"   
Kasumi suppressed a giggle, ducking her head and blushing. Remembering   
her Shakespeare she mumbled. "It is the east."   
"And Kasumi is the sun!" Ranma freely modified, coming theatrically up   
off his knees, gesturing grandly with an arm. "Arise, fair sun, and kill   
the envious moon!"   
Happily embarrassed, the girl put a hand to her cheek and ducked her   
head.   
Ranma verbally pounced on the opening, pointing with a grand sense of   
show. "See! How she lays a hand upon her cheek?" Her brought both fists   
before him in a gesture of hopeless longing. "Oh, that I were a glove   
upon that hand, that _I_ might touch that cheek!"   
He returned from quoting before Kasumi had a blush that would betray   
her. Eyes twinkling in mischievous delight he nodded simply. "Good   
morning."   
Kasumi decided that she liked this young man. Well, more than she'd   
thought she'd liked him already.   
While she was still being demurely embarrassed Ranma paused, allowing   
her the time, then addressed her. "If you'd like, I've drawn a   
western-style bubble bath for you. You don't have to worry about cleaning   
up after. I've got the bathroom to clean and this gives me a good excuse   
to scrub the tub."   
With mild surprise and a completely new sense of wonder Kasumi swept off   
to the bathroom. A tub simply mountainous with a bubbly white froth   
greeted her. Face shining with delightful anticipation Kasumi reached a   
hand up to the throat strings of her nightgown.   
The garment slid down and she stepped into the tub. Even the temperature   
was just right. 

Nabiki slept the sleep of one reluctant to wake. The problem with being   
a person of strong emotional control was that the body knew that you did   
it. It also knew how much effort it took and that the only precious   
jewels of rest were to be had in slumber. There was rarely a moment to   
relax while awake.   
This meant that the body did not want to relinquish sleep a minute too   
early, and even then it did so grudgingly. Somewhere this morning it   
found an extra margin of comfort and so slept in an extra half hour.   
That extra margin of comfort snuggled up closer to Nabiki and went back   
to sleep herself. 

There might come a day when the opening of Nabiki's eyes could be felt   
on the stock exchanges around the world. But today was not that day.   
Waking blearily and with much regret Nabiki pulled the pillow in tighter   
to her body and wished the sun could be paid off.   
The pillow moved slightly.   
The surge of adrenaline had a difficult time piercing Nabiki's veil of   
semi-consciousness. Mornings were typically rough for her, and her brain   
was reluctant to allow them. Emergency signals that would have sent a   
more high-strung person grasping for ceiling tiles merely caused Nabiki   
to reluctantly crack an eye open.   
She was sleeping with a redheaded girl in her arms.   
Recognizing the girl from the night before Nabiki dismissed it as a   
problem and went back to sleep.   
Orchid stretched and yawned. Nabiki's room was soft and quiet, and most   
importantly the last to waken on most mornings. But the Tendo daughter   
had school, so the redhead stirred just a little. Nabiki's eyes cracked   
open. Orchid gave her a daughter-to-mother style peck on one cheek, then   
relaxed and blinked intelligently at her.   
Nabiki came awake more easily than was her wont. Uncharacteristically,   
she smiled at her unexpected guest and gave her a sisterly squeeze before   
clamoring out over her.   
Nabiki felt good. She felt rested. She felt... LATE!!! As the panic   
began to set in she found she had another set of hands. Her pajama top   
disappeared even as she was pulling off her panties, articles of clothing   
were handed to her, some just appearing on her body as she fought to get   
on other things. Nabiki's hair was brushed out and combed even as she   
fought to get on her socks, then her bookbag was in her hand as she   
rushed downstairs.   
Nabiki paused on the first step, looking back to the entrance to her   
room. The girl was standing there. Following an impulse she couldn't have   
understood even the night before Nabiki rushed over and gave the girl a   
hug, then led her by the hand downstairs, noting absently that the demure   
girl was wearing one of her old dresses, filling it out cutely and with   
an overdose of charm.   
Nabiki led the girl into the kitchen, Kasumi was closing the last lunch   
box with a soft smile of supreme happiness.   
"Hey, sis. You okay with setting another place for breakfast?"   
Kasumi looked back over her shoulder, noting both girls with a happy   
gleam. Then she giggled. Nabiki's eyebrows shot up.   
Kasumi leaned back against the counter and hugged herself, speaking with   
her eyes closed. "I wouldn't mind at all, Nabiki. But I had nothing to do   
with breakfast. I just got done enjoying Ranma's *wonderful*   
consideration. He got up very early and did everything for me. I had a   
bubble bath and watched the sunrise and got to relax and read in the   
garden while Ranma did my whole day's chores. There's a note explaining   
that he'll be gone most of the day. I'd been wondering why there was the   
extra packed lunch and a place at the breakfast table, though."   
Nabiki smiled. This Ranma was turning out to be friend almost as fast as   
they'd grabbed him as a love interest. He'd even helped her with some   
financial work last night. The three girls migrated to the breakfast   
table just as a shriek lit up the morning from upstairs.   
"AARRGHHH, I'M LATE!!"   
With a mild look of concern the demure redhead drifted upstairs. She   
drifted back down in only a moment holding a confused and disturbed   
Serena's hand. The youngest Tendo was fully dressed and all prepared for   
the day.   
Nabiki blinked. "Say, sis. Did you fall asleep in your uniform again?   
Usually it takes you almost an hour under warp drive to get ready."   
Serena directed a strange look to the redhead to her right but couldn't   
find anything to say. They joined the others at the table and had a   
relaxed meal, just the girls. 

It was late morning. Genma and Soun sat out on the porch in deep   
discussion, arms and legs folded in utmost consternation as the clouds   
passed overhead. Genma was speaking.   
"I don't know what to do about the boy, Tendo. He's been unreasonable   
ever since we began this training mission."   
"Hmm?"   
"Well, you know that I set out with the intent to teach him all of our   
martial art's secret techniques. So no sooner did I have him away from   
his mother than I began training him in the dreaded Cat Fist."   
"How did that go?"   
"Failed utterly, Tendo. The training calls for wrapping the pupil head   
to foot in fish sausage and dropping him into a pit of starving cats.   
When he comes out he is supposed to know the Cat Fist. Well, I got the   
cats and wrapped the kid alright, but when I dropped him in there was   
this flash of light and silence. After about an hour I got brave enough   
to open the pit."   
"What did you see?"   
The bald man raised glinting eyes. "A sight so horrible it shocked me to   
my knees, my friend. Inside was Ranma, sitting on a burlap sack, petting   
a cat in his lap. There were close to a hundred felines in there. They   
hadn't eaten in DAYS. I'd expected them to turn on him like a swarm of   
piranhas, the book even says so. But no, he'd somehow unwrapped himself   
and given equal portions to each cat. They were purring, Tendo. My son   
didn't have a mark on him."   
"So did he learn the technique?" Soun asked.   
Genma hung his head. "No, Tendo. When I tested him his reflexes and   
strength were no greater than they'd been before. He didn't launch a   
*single* attack at me! At first I thought I'd overestimated the amount of   
fish sausage to use. The following day I dropped him in wearing half the   
amount, but still he managed to defy me and distribute it to satisfy the   
cats. So next I bound him hand and foot with strong chains and greased   
his flesh with fish paste. Yet when I again opened the door he had   
managed to free himself and avoid harm."   
Genma clenched his fists and wept in anguish. "I explained to him for   
hours, for DAYS how a martial artists should willingly undergo hardship   
in order to master the art. Again I left the cats without food of any   
kind for days. I thought that when I threw my son in bound in unbreakable   
bands of fish jerky, steeped in fish oil and garnished with a light   
repast of smelt and dried sardines that it would prove irresistible. I   
even went so far as to add a dab of a special combination of cat nip and   
caviar to the inside of his arms and legs."   
"What happened?" Soun was solemn.   
"At first I thought I'd been successful. There was a terrible   
caterwauling from the inside of the pit. There followed sounds of combat.   
I was *certain* that the dreaded technique would be ours. It took only   
minutes for the sound to die down, and I opened the pit just seconds   
afterwards, ready to greet my son and congratulate him on his mastery.   
All around him the hundred or more cats had been killed." Genma raised a   
steady glare toward his friend. "But my son was lying on the sacks,   
unharmed. He was *whimpering*, Tendo. My own son crying over such a   
little thing!"   
"Still, if he learned the technique..."   
"That's what I thought, too. So I tested him, but he was not the least   
bit better than before. Thinking perhaps that the technique was to be   
performed bound I retied him, but he was not able to block any of my   
kicks or punches, even when I tried my best, holding back nothing in   
hopes of shocking him into using the Cat Fist. In return he couldn't lay   
a finger on me. The training was all wasted."   
"Hmm, what did you do?"   
Genma laughed a bit. "What else could I do? I'd borrowed cats from every   
person I knew to train my son in that technique. It didn't matter that   
the alley cats were dead, but many of the others were pets. I grabbed   
Ranma and hightailed it out of there before my neighbors came searching   
for their animals." He sobered and directed his gaze toward his friend in   
a no nonsense way.   
"When we had gotten away I took a job as an assistant zookeeper. My   
thought was that maybe Ranma was too highly trained a martial artist to   
gain the most powerful technique from a bunch of wimpy house pets. So I   
got a position as feeder for the great cat cages."   
Soun looked at him in horror. "What did you do?"   
Genma grinned. "What do you think, Tendo? I repeated the training using   
lions pumas, tigers, leopards and jaguars. There was a great open cage   
where they were all fed. First I arranged excuses to get them all nice   
and hungry, then I opened all the intervening doors and threw Ranma in   
with the food."   
Soun was startled. "Waitaminute! You mean *you're* the one in that   
article from ten years ago 'Crazy Man Throws Son to Lions'?"   
Genma nodded formally. "Yes Tendo. Unfortunately some tourist witnessed   
the training." He adjusted his glasses. "Still, I'm not sure it would   
have succeeded anyway. The boy was able to escape my most clever bonds.   
I'd never even seen him do it. I'd just fling him in with a slab of steak   
on each side and the next thing I knew he'd be out without a mark on him.   
Once I even caught a redheaded foreign woman cleaning the fish paste off   
his face. The tigers didn't get so much as a lick."   
"Still, it must have made him formidable, able to escape all those cats."   
"I was going to attack him and test it but he and the woman disappeared.   
I had to abandon the search to evade the police. Luckily I'd used a false   
name when getting the job. But months later when I'd finally tracked him   
down he'd improved, but not by enough to impress me. After all that work   
somehow he'd managed to evade learning the most dreadful technique in our   
art. From that point on I was disappointed in him."   
"Hmm, so what did you do?"   
"I continued with the training, of course. But the boy had become   
hopelessly corrupted. Kind, polite to ladies, he's even so well-mannered   
that he refused to steal in the interests of perfecting his art!" Genma   
wept at the shame of it all.   
"Hmm, hardly the kind of training *we* went through. Is he even a master   
of Anything-Goes?"   
"No boy who could work so hard to avoid training could master our style,   
Tendo." Genma wiped tears from his eyes.   
"Makes it hard to inherit the dojo. What do you say, Saotome?"   
"Hard to say, Tendo. Maybe he could just be breeding stock while one of   
your daughters carried on the tradition."   
"No, none of them have achieved true mastery. It's sad. We all had such   
high hopes. But if you don't have a son worth marrying then no matter how   
much they like him they *aren't* going to marry him."   
"Hmm." Both men pondered. Genma swarmed to his feet, clenching his fist   
he cried toward the heavens. "Oh, the agony of having such a worthless   
son!" 

*****   
That Place in the Future 

Mr. Spock looked up from his instruments on the bridge of the Enterprise   
to address the captain. "The disturbance was a temporal warp of unknown   
intensity, reaching across time and space. It's impossible to pinpoint   
its exact origin, or the point at which Orchid interrupted the transfer,   
within the limits of our present technology. Our instruments are simply   
inadequate for the task."   
Kirk found a grin somewhere. "Yes. But we're aware of an artifact that   
can track through time without our problems, even facilitate time travel."   
"Captain, this course of action is extremely hazardous." The   
black-haired alien warned.   
"Yeah. Not to mention that playing around with time can erase our own   
existence." The doctor added.   
Kirk dealt with the objections with his customary aplomb. "Spock, Bones,   
our mission was to investigate the near murder of a starfleet diplomatic   
member. Now we've got a situation where that member has been kidnapped,   
probably by the same force to cause to her injuries. I don't see how this   
isn't covered under our mission assignment."   
The doctor crossed his arms. "Yeah, except that diplomat also happens to   
be your daughter."   
Captain Kirk sat into his command chair, looking directly ahead. "We'll   
catch up when we're off duty. Mr. Scott?" He keyed the communicator on   
his chair arm.   
"Aye, cap'in?"   
"Prepare for warp factor seven."   
"Kinne we go a wee bit faster, cap'in?" The Scotsman's voice trembled   
with emotion. "The wee bairn mae be in trubl!"   
The captain smirked. "Are you sure your engines can handle the strain,   
Mr. Scott?"   
There came a flood of rich brogue so thick even another Scotsman would   
have difficulty understanding it. Followed by an emotion-laden, "Aye.   
I'll nurse 'em if ye was uv a min' ta gu warp elev'n!"   
The captain nodded, turning off the switch and addressing his navigator.   
"Mr. Sulu, set course for the Guardian of Forever. Warp Factor Nine." 

*****   
Universe C, Past 

The lock to this particular cave was several hundred years old. The fact   
that it still worked would have surprised one, unless that one also knew   
that it was of a material likely to be immune to hacksaw blade and bolt   
cutter for many thousands of years yet.   
The trouble it took painting it to look old was well worth not having   
questions posed about it, the old man felt. Turning the key and   
repocketing it in his robe Achika's father started down steps he had not   
traveled in 400 years, 300 years after he had originally imprisoned the   
demoness in there.   
The demoness, a space pirate named Ryoko.   
The gate yielded under his ministrations, and the ancient warrior of   
planet Jurai strode soundlessly down the tunnel, noting absently through   
his passage that many of the traps he'd set anciently had been disabled   
by accumulated grit and the nests of small creatures. If fact the tunnel   
was unguarded all the way down to the seal room, where a huge stone hung   
suspended in mid air, held there by invisible powers. Calmly tripping the   
concealed release Achika's father retrieved the sword of ancient Juraian   
power that had served as the key to keep the energy complex locked. A   
wall opened from the seal chamber to the tomb, and the multiton boulder   
settled to the floor, signaling the release of the binding powers.   
The prison was unlocked. Katsuhito strode in, down the ramp of energy   
tiles and over a floor laid in a mosaic intended to imprison the space   
pirate forever. In the pool where her preserved body lay she was already   
beginning to stir.   
Katsuhito sat down to wait. 

*****   
Again that Unidentified Place 

Four girls walked the familiar route from the Tendo house to Furinkan   
high. Kasumi walked with flowing steps, an attractive elegance at odds   
with the stark plainness of the regulation school uniform, but quite in   
harmony with her gentle good looks. Nabiki moved as she always did,   
motion outfitted to need. If there was cause to run, she would run, walk,   
she would walk. But it was locomotion pure and simple, if spiced a   
*little* bit by her sparkling spirit.   
Serena flowed.   
There were hardly any other words for it. She would be wherever she   
wanted to be and hardly appear to put any effort into it. While there   
were elements of her eldest sister's grace and the next oldest's   
practicality, the whole blend was Serena's. It was as if her martial arts   
practice had secretly flowed into all her other walks of life and she   
hardly needed to exert herself to cover short distances, her body being   
accustomed to vast ones.   
Still the three Tendo daughters felt like flowers to Orchid's butterfly.   
The redhead would flit here and about, sniff this daisy, smell that rose,   
flit over to a window pot and exclaim with delight in her eyes at finding   
mint there. A puppy got petted and a kitten fed milk. Now the young girl   
had somehow produced a lollipop and was licking while her bright eyes   
took in everything around her.   
Heart bubbling, Orchid burst into song.   
** 

"The day-dawn is breaking   
the world is awaking   
The clouds of night's shadow are fleeing away. 

The world-wide commotion   
from ocean to ocean   
now fleeing the light of the beautiful day! 

(Orchid spun in place, coming to rest on a pillar. With a conductor's   
wand she tapped the base of her stand and conducted a chorus of   
songbirds, suddenly singing in human voices.) 

Beautiful Day, of peace and rest.   
Bright be thy dawn, from east to west! 

Hail to thine earliest welcome ray.   
Beautiful, Bright, and now joyful day! 

**   
The three Tendo girls looked on in joy at the bubbling girl suffused   
with joy and light as said person hopped lightly down from her perch. The   
cloud of songbirds now released to fly away in a glorious moment of gay   
and colorful plumage.   
After about a solid minute of standing and smiling their thoughts picked   
up where they had left and they resumed their walk toward school. In the   
depths of Nabiki's mind something logged that that was the first time   
they'd heard the girl speak at all, but the rest of her was so filled   
with warmth and energy that the matter did not seem very important. 

*****   
Universe C, Future 

Tenchi swept into the Masaki home, princess and demon trailing behind.   
"I didn't want this to happen, but I guess we had no choice. All I wanted   
was for Ranma to leave my mother alone. How could I lose control like   
that? I never wanted to kill him."   
Sasami cocked her head, having just entered the room from her duties in   
the kitchen. "...Ranma? I didn't know you liked manga like your father."   
Tenchi recoiled. "I'm not a pervert like my father!" He did a   
double-take and stared at Ayeka's younger sister. "Wait, what's manga got   
to do with Ranma? How did you know about him anyway? You weren't here   
when..."   
Sasami looked puzzled at him and the two older girls who were staring at   
her in return. "Wait right here!" She called, turning on one heel and   
vanishing up the stairs. She came back just as quickly, carrying a manga   
which she gave to Tenchi. "Here! It just came out, and it's very popular!"   
Tenchi read dubiously for approximately a second before his eyes bugged   
out and he shouted.   
"WASHU!!!"   


To be continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

To quote the estimable Saotome. "Here we go again." 

To those who said I couldn't make this any stranger, I leave it to the   
rest of you to judge. Have I?   



	13. 13

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Thirteen   
Good Luck or Bad?   


by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber   


No legal rights to any disclaimers were acquired for use in this   
production, therefore they have been omitted to avoid lawsuit. 

************************************************   
Universe B, Home Universe 

Serena wobbled unsteadily as she tried unsuccessfully to balance on   
the short bamboo reeds. "I *still* don't see why we have to do this."   
She complained.   
Rae glittered, vaulting from the ground to the roof behind her.   
"This is why."   
The others gaped. "You can *do* that? But, you're *not* in..."   
Not in her Sailor suit, but they couldn't say it. Chad was watching. 

Rae vaulted down just as easily. "Ranma honey says he'll get me   
running across rooftops in no time. I'm *really* excited by all the   
training he's given me. And I wanted to share it with you. After all, we   
might have to defend ourselves from muggers or something, right?"   
"Emphasis on the *something*" she said low and close, so Chad   
couldn't overhear.   
"Are you sure this will work?" Amy wasn't enthusiastic.   
"Aw, c'mon gang!" Lita began jumping from pole to pole, spilling   
only occasionally. "If Ranma says it works... Besides, Rae didn't learn   
how to jump like that from watching TV."   
Mina jumped up on the poles, suddenly glad they were only a foot off   
the ground. "Oh. This *isn't* easy." 

*****   
A Remote Place Outside Normal Time 

"The time stream is suffering from myriad disruptions." The leader   
of the council stated. "Our duty as the Guardians of time is being   
seriously compromised. If this state of affairs continues we will no   
longer exist."   
"Then send one of us to correct these problems." Another of the   
ruling council cried out. "Surely it cannot be that difficult to correct   
such a routine problem."   
"You are gravely uninformed," was the stern rebuke. "The disruption   
in question is an augmented Ranma Saotome." With a brief gesture he   
activated a holoprojector. As Ranma's features sprang up the leader   
continued. "In addition to his Jusenkyo curse he has lived several lives   
and has amassed an array of formidable skills. Among them an impressive   
level in the Martial Arts and the abilities of a Sailor Scout. Coupled   
with an ability to travel through time and dimensions he presents a   
great challenge for most of our august company."   
"He may be a challenge but we can surely overcome it. This body has   
defied many other threats, many of them much more menacing in nature."   
Another member of the council boasted.   
"This Ranma also has powerful allies. The deities in his own   
dimension have agreed to support his actions. Expect divine intervention   
working against you in this mission. No, we must send one of our most   
hazardous agents." The leader stated. Taking a deep breath he gave his   
decision.   
"We must send Doctor Where."   
"Doctor Who?" One of the younger members asked.   
"He's not powerful enough for this mission. Doctor Where is as good   
but also has many abilities not natural to a timelord. He indeed can   
fight this menace." A more experienced member of the council replied. He   
then raised his voice in objection.   
"This is too risky to send such an unstable, if powerful operative   
on such a delicate mission. Can we not simply repair the damage the   
Saotome boy has wrought on the timestream?"   
"I have already send many of our number to do just that," came the   
reply. "Unfortunately, as his interventions are benevolent in nature.   
Considerable opposition exists. Additionally, he is constantly moving to   
other dimensions and creating even more changes. We must stop him for   
compounding the damage he has already done and give the battered   
timestream a chance to heal."   
"Very well but Doctor Where? He is really best suited to the   
Historical Anomaly division." [eg where do the planes and ships in the   
Bermuda Triangle really go? They ended up in different star systems   
under the guidance of navigator, the timelord Doctor Where. Once a   
Hibiki get you lost you STAY lost.]   
"I agree but we have no choice." The leader answered. 

"To minimize detection by the local populace we have disguised your   
TARDIS as the most inconspicuous item we could think of, Doctor Where."   
The technician explained.   
"A port a potty?" The disbelieving timelord replied. "You expect me   
to travel through time in a port a potty?"   
"In the environment you are going no one will notice such a device."   
A much calmer voice answered.   
Dismissing the frightened technician, the leader of the council   
addressed his agent. "You will be returning to the late 20th century   
earth time to confront this threat to the timestream. This matter is of   
greatest urgency. So you will travel in the potty and like it!!"   
"......"   
"Your target is one Ranma Saotome. Currently residing in..."   
"Nerima ward, Tokyo." Doctor Where completed. "We have met, it was   
before I became a timelord." He explained to his audience. "Very well, I   
shall depart at once. Condition of target?"   
"To be retrieved alive and brought here for interrogation."   
"As you will" Doctor Where answered as he entered his TARDIS. Once   
inside he let his current form drop and assumed his natural self.   
"Ranma. I am coming for you. At last revenge will be mine." With a nasty   
smirk Ryoga Hibiki set a course for home. 

*****   
Distant Future of Universe C, Except They've Been Time Traveling Too 

Spock looked up from his instruments. "Captain, we appear to have   
arrived within the last days of the Juraian Empire, before it perished   
for lack of an heir."   
Bones shifted uncomfortably, glaring at both the captain and the   
alien. "Well this is a fine mess. That means we've got, what is it? The   
space pirates that will destroy the Empire, the Galaxy Police cutters,   
all crewed by real beings instead of ghosts, holograms and automated   
systems."   
"And the Royal Navy of the Juraians themselves." Spock interjected,   
rising from his instruments. "Indeed, there are few periods in history   
that were quite so well armed."   
"It would seem then that our goal would be to avoid notice. Spock,   
how well does their technology compare with our own?" Jim asked.   
The alien considered. "Difficult to summarize, captain. We know very   
little about their culture save that the power of the Juraian's military   
was reputed to be quite vast, their nobility were credited with godlike   
powers, and the fact that very little of their technology survived the   
collapse of their reign. According to theory it was based upon organic   
pseudo-structures that were unable to survive without the care of their   
creators."   
"We also know that these space pirates were comparatively few in   
number, but that it was somehow arranged to isolate the few noble   
Juraians to a planetary backwater while the heart of the empire was   
destroyed." The captain contemplated in his seat.   
"Possibly just a failure of communications." The alien felt the need   
to add.   
The navigator turned away from his board. "That's right, captain.   
Even with subspace radios we do occasionally experience blackouts where   
one area of space has difficulty communicating with another. It's   
possible the pirates just waited until such an event happened around   
whatever backwater these Juraian nobles were vacationing in."   
The doctor folded his arms. "Not much there we could use, is there?   
I mean, how are we going to sneak around without anyone noticing us if   
*that's* what we have to go on?"   
Kirk thought for only a moment, then shot out of his seat. "Mr.   
Sulu, take us to Earth, best possible speed, keeping us to the fringes   
and outskirts and away from this period's normal traffic. Mr. Spock,   
what are the chances of the planet our diplomat was flung to being the   
same one these nobles are visiting?"   
The alien was unconcerned. "Infinitesimal, captain."   
James Kirk grinned. "Right. Uhura, monitor all frequencies. Perhaps   
we can learn something that will help us stay hidden. Mr. Spock, the   
bridge is yours."   
The doors of the turbolift closed over the energetic man. 

*****   
Unidentified Universe which is actually part of Universe C 

Dr. Hibiki phased in his tardis at the appropriate time and place,   
appearing on a street corner near a construction site just outside a   
certain building where a man by the name of Genma Saotome was preparing   
a pit of cats.   
Leaving the tardis with his instruments, he went about taking   
readings. Then, with deceptive simplicity, he went about ruining   
someone's life.   
"Ranma," he muttered to himself in a rage. "Tonight you will only   
*begin* to pay for your affront against me!" He placed the last   
unobtrusively small device, then with a remote unit activated the field   
that generated. He spent an hour wandering over the site, kept from   
getting lost by an inertial navigator implanted behind his left ear.   
With a satisfied, malicious grin the timelord Dr. Where concluded that   
all was set. He looked in triumph to the building where a small network   
of devices were resonating a very specific temporal frequency, creating   
a field that would bounce a temporal traveler from this arrival point   
into a universe far, *far* worse.   
Ryoga allowed himself a fanged grin. "Ranma, for the hell you've   
made of my life... prepare to meet the real thing!" After Saotome had   
enjoyed a few years in the hands of merciless fiends would Hibiki phase   
in to take a much more tractable Ranma to meet the counsel.   
With an evil laugh Ryoga headed back to his tardis, only to discover   
that the construction workers had forced the door off its hinges and the   
inside was covered in scraps of toilet paper and human waste.   
Behind him a dimensional traveler presently going by the name of   
Orchid slammed through his resonance barrier and saved a young boy from   
getting devoured by cats. 

Up in Heaven Kami-sama nodded in response to the question in his   
daughter's eyes. Both looked back to the scrying window. 

Dr. Hibiki phased his tardis in carefully, then scanned the vicinity   
and peeked out for a careful look around. Controls inside were somewhat   
stained in spite of his and the repair circuitry's best efforts, but   
there did not appear to be a construction yard anywhere in the near   
vicinity. The lock holding the door shut had failed three times now to   
combinations of jackhammers, pneumatic drills, crowbars and welding   
machinery, and was now a trifle on the fragile side. He did not want to   
risk yet another bout of anxious construction workers determined to use   
the potty. Having to wait in line to get into his tardis was bad enough,   
cleaning it was worse.   
Thankfully, there did not appear to be any construction of any kind   
going on in this location.   
He found he was in a zoo.   
Seething, Dr. Hibiki left the disguised time travel device and   
scouted the area. His prey was easy enough to find. Ranma was still in   
girl form. She had changed out of her interstellar diplomat garb and was   
now dressed as an American tourist. Something beneath Genma's notice as   
that latter went about tying his son up in steak, sausages and other   
meat over the pit of lions.   
Dr. Where wasted no time. Orchid had slammed into his resonance   
barrier, its field still somewhat effected her. Pointing a new device   
that it had taken him weeks to create at her, Ryoga triggered a beam and   
the redheaded female was flung into the deepest pits of the Netherworld! 

Or so he thought.   
When he got back to his tardis an animal trainer had backed his   
elephant into it and now a gang of delinquent youth were taking   
advantage of this rest stop so far from the main buildings.   
Smoke billowed in faint wisps from tortured circuitry. 

*****   
Random Universe 5 

Orchid dropped hard through the dimensional gate and came down   
rolling on sand. Something about the transfer and the face of the one   
who'd forced her through it began eating at her mind. Somehow it seemed   
so familiar.   
Righting herself, the redhead smoothed her clothes and began walking   
casually away from the point of impact. It was a beach and there were   
people all around. Some were staring. So Orchid resolved to fade into   
the woodwork as quickly as possible. Three seconds later she was   
swimsuited, sunblocked, sunglassed, and walking around a section of   
beach away from the entry point, dodging her way casually through the   
deeper crowds in order to lose determined pursuit.   
Not that she was afraid of any. She was beginning to remember alot   
of things, in a hazy sort of way, and no one around here had the kind of   
chi signature to indicate enough martial arts training to trail her.   
Correction. 

Orchid's deep blue eyes focused in on a figure of trust and support.   
Two actually. A smile broke forth from her lips. Now she knew that   
everything would be alright.   
After all, wasn't that what she'd wished for?   
Orchid chewed her lip. The pair she wanted were pretty isolated. She   
didn't precisely want to leave the cover of the crowds to go out to   
them. Then, as luck would have it, she noticed another group heading out   
in that general direction.   
'Twasn't but the work of a moment to blend herself in seamlessly   
with it. 

...Keiichi grabbed the guy's arm, shouting. "Hey! You don't know   
what you're doing there. You're messing around with the Ultimate Force,   
pal!"   
Orchid almost hung her head. You *never* talk about things like that   
in public. Normal people never understood, and it just made you look   
foolish. Stepping in to cover her father's blunder Orchid dropped her   
glasses and reached in to grab the shirt front of the guy Keiichi was   
talking to.   
The mocking laughter cut off as the diminutive redhead lifted the   
strong man into the air by his shirt front. Drawing back a fist she   
warned. "He means *me*, pal! Now unless you want to go on the first   
unassisted flight to the moon you'd better apologize to my father!"   
"CUT!!!"   
Orchid looked around herself. Where had all those cameras come from?   
Were they invisible? How come she hadn't noticed them? Also, everybody   
was staring at her, most of them in shock, a few of them in rage. Orchid   
dropped the man she'd been holding and began backing a few steps away. A   
man was charging out onto the sands.   
"Akane Hakiko, who invited you onto this set? What are you doing   
interrupting in the middle of filming? This is more a stunt like I'd   
expect from that Ashida character. You're lucky we don't charge you for   
the whole day!"   
Orchid had no understanding of what was going on. She looked   
fearfully around herself. No support was to be found anywhere. Crying,   
she turned and leapt over a few beach umbrella clusters to the top of a   
lifeguard station, then made a running dive into the sea.   
The show director was taken aback. He looked around himself. Nobody   
else seemed to have missed it either. The object of his ire had made   
those leaps, and the cameras had NOT been running.   
Turning he looked back at the sea.   
Everybody knew that movie magic only functioned when the cameras   
were running.   
The cameras had not been running.   
Twenty minutes later the girl he'd *thought* was the actress Akane   
Hakiko had still not surfaced. 

On a different section of beach one of the swimmers who'd been out   
playing in the waves came in and showered herself. Orchid was still   
badly shaken. But in 'stealth' mode it was unlikely that anyone but   
Belldandy could trace her.   
Why had they all reacted like that? What had that man been talking   
about? The name Akane seemed vaguely familiar. But why hadn't the   
goddess recognized her?   
One thing was certain, she was nearly ready to die of the strain and   
confusion. Well, time enough to shelf the real concerns and do something   
where she could unwind. She'd just finished swimming, and that hadn't   
helped, what she was really in the mood for was swings, only they never   
made them big enough for adults to really play on, so that left...   
In an amazingly short time Orchid was off the beach and stepping out   
onto the ice of a local skating rink. 

"Do you know what could have happened to that girl?" Miko, the   
actress who played Belldandy, asked of her companion.   
"I don't know, Miko." Keiichi's actor replied. The director had been   
so concerned that he'd canceled shooting for the day while local   
lifeguards combed the area for a body.   
Everybody was dreading that they'd find one. The scared and hunted   
look on the girl's face as she'd fled hadn't left anyone feeling good.   
Topper felt particularly bad. The girl had honestly thought something   
was wrong and was stepping in to defend him!   
He continued. "I mean, it made me feel like a lousy rat when she   
searched my face there at the end and I'd been too surprised to give her   
any support. Only the fact that I'm not that much of a swimmer keeps me   
from being out there looking for her with the lifeguards. I feel like I   
betrayed her."   
Miko smiled, though she herself was concerned. She confided. "I feel   
a little responsible too. Maybe there was something we could have done,   
but it was just so unexpected."   
Topper nodded again. "Yeah. It was over in, what? A second? Even   
that? We didn't have much time to adapt to what was going on, did we?"   
The pair arrived in silence at the cafe they'd picked out. It was   
one of those high-class places that wasn't all stuck up about itself,   
nicely situated with a view of the beach from the balcony and a view   
into an indoor skating rink on the shore side. Topper recalled briefly   
his sister recommending it for `this sort of thing.'   
They both went away from the beach side by unspoken agreement,   
sitting next to the plate glass window that allowed a view of the   
skaters inside. A waitress took their orders and both performers sought   
brief peace by looking in the window.   
Their jaws dropped wide open. 

Orchid danced.   
The ice had been cleared long ago, people being reluctant to detract   
even in the slightest from the amazing show. Orchid briefly recalled   
that she had once had a career in ballet, and that other times she had   
taken to competition figure skating, never losing a match.   
All that was kind of background as she let her body flow through the   
moves. The outright impossible she reserved for limited use, to spice a   
display of profound grace so awesome that her fighting style was clumsy   
as an ox by comparison.   
If she seemed to float, it was because more accurate and stronger   
words did not exist to describe it. If she spun, that was because the   
tongue would fail to express any words that could adequately come close   
to the fluid passion of motion she described.   
As she danced the ice became a fairy world where the unexpected was   
the ordinary, the wondrous became commonplace. It was an explicit and   
beautiful fantasy that existed without words, without sound. A   
breathtaking pass into a higher realm.   
She cried.   
The audience wept with her. Stoic Japanese businessmen stern before   
the worst provocation fountained tears while clasping strangers they did   
not know to their bosoms for comfort.   
Orchid shed tears softly as she danced the ice. It was a healing   
time for her, something that needed to be done. Something she'd longed   
to do, something that in a way she had to do.   
She wept for a boy she had not been there to save from the lions, to   
raise as a little brother, confident, and friend. Orchid wept for a   
father sailing throughout the stars in a large and lonely ship, among   
friends and yet alone.   
She wept her greatest tears for an old man and his daughter, people   
who had a great hold on her heart, who had loved her and saved her, but   
now she would see again nevermore.   
She cried tears for friends long gone, for memories alone, for loved   
and living family that was both all that friends could be and more.   
But, once that was all cleared away, she ceased to let it trouble   
her. Orchid took off and danced a song of enduring love, of friendships   
won and defended against all odds, hurts healed and loving homes,   
parental arms and flying high on swings and ropes and leaps. She sang   
the joys of childhood, opening her voice softly, yet with a power that   
penetrated and endured.   
In the ten minutes that it took, those who'd skated with her aged a   
thousand lives and returned to youth again that morn. They were, not one   
of them, the same as when they'd entered the skate center for a mild   
activity. And not one of them could express it.   
Orchid then missed a step and fell onto her bottom. Legs and skirt   
flaring out on the ice she skidded to an embarrassed stop. She got up   
sheepishly and pushed off, this time returning to the normal world with   
the rest of them and merely doing a few normal routines. The spell, if   
that was what it was, was broken. People began to shake themselves and   
darted glances around to make sure no one had noticed their little   
daydream, amazed and convinced by the strange power's very intimacy that   
it had to have all been merely a fancy, that nothing really had happened   
outside of their own minds.   
Even skating conspicuously within the bounds of normalacy Orchid was   
wonderful, and that was when the two actors sat down. 

"Isn't that her?" Topper asked excitedly.   
"It could be." Miko said hopefully, then later in a disappointed   
frown. "Oh no, I guess not. See, there's another of the Ranma cast. I'd   
forgotten they were filming on this island."   
Both watched as the actor who played Mikado Sanzenine flowed out   
onto the ice. 

Orchid was joined by a figure who was almost as good on the ice as   
she was in `normal' mode. She shone slightly as he joined her, smiling   
up at him.   
"Mikado."   
He joined her with a kiss. She made allowances. Mikado had fewer   
quirks than Tatewaki, was saner than Kodachi, calmer than Mousse, an   
all-around better fellow than Ryoga, and was one of the least perverted   
of her old friends.   
In fact she felt sorry that they hadn't gotten along better at their   
first meeting. Well, she said that to herself, but in part it was she'd   
always felt badly about breaking up his wedding nuptials.   
Curse or no curse, changed pasts or no, there was no way *she* was   
going to end up a bride!   
Orchid blinked a moment, wondering where that thought had come from. 

Curse? Something was familiar about that.   
"So thoughtful, my dove?" Mikado asked, having skated with her   
flawlessly for many long moments. "You know, Akane, I'm sorry my tour   
with the troupe won't be longer."   
Orchid shook her head thoughtfully. "Not Akane. That's not *my*   
name."   
Her skating partner accepted that with a twitch. She was *that*   
bitter about not getting the part of her namesake in this series? How   
angry could you get about not getting the part that coincidentally had   
your same first name? "Well, okay. I didn't know you were into method   
acting before. So which do you prefer, Ranma or Ranko?"   
A very large part of memory came returning, trailing disconnected   
streamers. The redhead smiled, quoting words from long ago with only   
partial understanding. "I go by Ranko when I'm a girl."   
"I should have guessed." Mikado replied, holding her lightly by the   
waist as they executed a maneuver that would have broken the necks of   
less talented skaters. They did it backwards.   
Ranko, for her part, was only too grateful to have some part of her   
memory of self restored. Doubling this gratitude was the fact that the   
stadium was being partially emptied of the crowd who had seen her   
showing off. Fewer witnesses of her lapse meant a better chance for it   
to be ignored. Film crews were now moving in and placing cameras.   
Apparently the whole rink had been rented for the filming of something,   
but nobody seemed to be moving to evict her from the ice.   
Electing not to worry about it, she permitted Mikado to lift and   
spin her, adjusting his touch with a light pressure of her own so that   
they flew an extra twelve feet in the later leap.   
He spilled badly and she barely managed to catch him in time. He   
laughed partially at himself, grinning. "Ha, remind me to try that one   
with the cameras running sometime. I don't usually attempt to fly twenty   
feet at a jump."   
To Orchid that was wrong. Martial artists, even martial figure   
skaters, routinely flew twenty *yards* or more on a leap. What was it   
that was so wrong with everyone she'd met here? She resolved to fade a   
bit more into the background until she found out more.   
Outside, a good distance away in a different building, a pampered   
actress by the name of Akane Hakiko, accustomed to getting most things   
she asked for and bitter about not getting the part she'd wanted, lay in   
her sumptuous bath quite aware that she was going to be late for   
shooting, and pleased with how much that would annoy certain people she   
didn't like. 

Topper and Miko looked in through the window, aware of the crowds   
that would like to get in closer and glad that they had gotten good   
seats early. "It looks like they're filming a new episode!" Miko said   
excitedly.   
Keiichi's actor concluded that his date was quite a Ranma fan.   
Topper watched the crews set up with interest. From the outside like   
this it was easy to spot eddies and flows he'd missed in his own   
experiences. This was exciting! Even knowing what was to happen   
beforehand it gave him a thrill to sit there watching it being made.   
More of the Ranma cast entered. 

Ranko helped a fatigued Mikado over to a seat off the ice where he   
could rest and regain himself for whatever was supposed to happen now.   
Her beautiful face lit up when she saw many of the people gathered   
there, then flattened again when she realized something was quite wrong.   
Ryoga was sitting next to a cage holding what looked like *him* in his   
black pig form, eating pork and grinning evilly at the porker. Asuza was   
getting along splendidly with other females and hadn't lunged at a   
single cute thing in sight. Ranko was passing by there and Asuza nabbed   
her.   
"Akane, I'm worried. You know our director. He hasn't pulled   
anything in three whole days. What could be going on?"   
Orchid sighed. "Please don't call me Akane. I don't want to go by   
that name, ever."   
Asuza blink-blinked.   
Orchid essayed a wane smile. "Call me Ranko?"   
Asuza smirked knowingly. "Method acting?"   
"It would make me happy." Orchid/Ranko ventured.   
Asuza bobbed a nod in a very friendly way. "Sure, I'll let everyone   
know. Why don't you take a break from the ice now? I saw what you were   
doing out there, you're probably all worn out. You want me to go with   
you to get a treat? They've kept the snack bar open."   
Ranko looked over to the rinkside eatery. She was beginning to adapt   
herself. They were obviously filming something, and it looked like her   
friends were all involved in it. Seemed harmless. She grinned and went   
with the pretty skater over to the counter, both ordering enormous   
sweets.   
Brown-haired Asuza floated into her seat in a plethora of curls.   
Ranko joined her with a pretty bounce. Both dug into their ice creams   
and gave out identical sighs of pleasure. They barely had time for a   
little chit chat before Asuza was dragged away by the costumers,   
apparently tight jeans and a `southern bell' blouse were not considered   
appropriate attire for the next scene, though nobody complained over   
Ranko's usual pants and chinese shirt she'd thrown on over her skating   
costume.   
Breath belonging to someone arrogant enough to believe they were   
God's gift to women began breathing on Ranko's neck. A hand snaked up   
under one arm and went to grab her breast.   
She removed her fist from impact position to watch *Ranma* sail   
backward through the air to impact upside down on the far wall of the   
stadium. With a groan he slid down behind the retaining barrier, falling   
completely out of sight in a place where no one was likely to go.   
Ranko dropped her arm and blinked around in fright. Everyone had   
been distracted by something out over on the ice, nobody saw.   
What was going on? That had been an anti-Happosai punch. Ranma threw   
them so often he shouldn't even have noticed dodging it. And what had   
the grab been for? A joke? He was her *brother* for pete squeaks! That's   
it, he must have been teasing. Suddenly she felt sorry for hitting him.   
Whatever it was over by the ice came to it's conclusion and film   
crewers began setting up a small table with two of Akane Tendo's   
friends. One man with a clipboard came to Ranko's table.   
"Sorry miss, you know the rules. No major characters allowed in   
background shots. You'll have to move and come back later."   
She nodded obediently and began to relocate. The stage hand grabbed   
her shoulder. "Hey, do you know where Ranma is? He's due up at the rink   
for the next shot."   
Ranko spied a cup of hot water and nodded. "I'll send him." 

"This is rather exciting to watch from the outside, isn't it?"   
Belldandy's actress glowed. The pair of them were enjoying long desserts   
while watching the scene inside.   
Topper nodded, happy. "Yeah, it's a lot less work this way."   
They both laughed. 

Male Ranko filtered through the crowd and ended up right next to   
Ryoga, both of them with a pair of skates. A man in a tee shirt and suit   
pants grabbed them both by the shoulders from behind.   
"Now remember, I *promise* the movie magic will work for this. We   
start the cameras, you lace up, step out on the ice, and you'll sail   
like angels. Go for it!" With a slap on each of their shoulders he was   
gone.   
Somebody called "Action!" and Ryoga was lacing up with continual   
evil looks cast aside to Ranma. Orchid/Ranko/Ranma sighed and did   
his/her best to ignore him. They finished lacing at the same time and   
both stepped out, Ryoga yelling fiercely. "Let's go!!!"   
The Lost Boy spilled backward so badly he almost beheaded himself on   
the launch step.   
Male Ranko sailed around him, doing a good impression of Peter Pan's   
effortless flight on the ice. A bit of memory was stirring. "So, Ryoga.   
What was that about a skate off?"   
"RANMA, stop picking on poor Ryoga!"   
No need to guess who *that* was, Orchid thought, sucking in his   
upper lip a bit. He swiveled into a beautiful spin and started to do   
slick-surface martial arts katas while Akane Tendo skated out.   
"Really, Ranma, how can you be so inconsiderate? It's obvious that   
he's never skated before. How *dare* you lure him into this? You   
probably knew all about him never being on ice before. Honestly, how can   
you be so cruel?"   
"I don't *care* if it's not what I planned for this. Keep rolling!"   
The director hissed to his cameraman.   
`Ranma' looked back over his shoulder. "Yeah? Well I suppose that it   
takes a flatchested tomboy to figure all this out." He waved an arm.   
"You'll notice my ingenious plot seems to have fooled everyone else. Cut   
it out, Akane. He's the one that challenged me to this. You'd have   
figured even pig-breath here woulda been smarter than that."   
"I swear you can be such a jerk, Ranma."   
"Man, I wish I'd never met you."   
Orchid stiffened and braced at her own careless statement, but   
relaxed when she recalled that she no longer carried a Destiny Ring.   
Suddenly her face was mallet-deep in the ice. 

*****   
Universe C, Past 

"Ryoko."   
"I saw." The demoness half-pulled herself out of the pool of   
energized liquid. "I too had been watching that girl. She'd made me   
feel... something, I don't know what, but I liked feeling it."   
"I need to know what other of your competitors or compatriots could   
have done this."   
"None. You may not know this Yosho, but I was a one-of-a-kind   
creation. I don't have any compatriots, and none of my competitors could   
have duplicated my style. I don't know who impersonated me down there,   
but they're going to regret it."   
"Did you see the fight?"   
"Yah, I'd been sending my astral body wherever that redhead'd go.   
I... liked her. She... anyway, yah, I saw the fight. Somebody who looked   
like me and some kid I didn't recognize. Ayeka served as distraction."   
"Ayeka. Yes, I recognized her. I should very much like to know why   
she was involved in this."   
The demoness climbed fully out of the pool, facing the Juraian   
warrior. "Yosho, I don't like what you did to me. I don't like it at   
all. But if you need any help in avenging Orchid... I'm your demon."   
"Do you swear?"   
"Yes I swear it!"   
Yosho, self-exiled crown prince of Jurai, one of its greatest   
warriors and now a lowly shrine priest with a daughter, assumed a mantle   
he had put off a long time ago and stood as the warrior he had always   
been.   
"Here are your gems, Ryoko. Let us collect Achika and go seeking my   
sister. Maybe Ayeka can explain to us why one of the most innocent   
flowers of this world had to be assassinated."   


To be Continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

Credit must go to the Scuzzy one for the idea of Ryoga as Doctor   
Where and a portion of that text (including all mistakes you can find -   
really). The Anime as filmed by Japan's Hollywood idea was stolen (with   
permission, darn it!) from Stepping Into Keiichi by Delany Brittain,   
whose characters for Miko (Belldandy's actress) and Topper (Keiichi's)   
were used by me without shame or remorse. 

As for anything else, either find it on Celeste's most excellent   
webpage at: 

http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/seagate/131/mirrors/ 

or go without. Keep your comments to yourselves. I'm tired. At present   
all my spare energy is devoted toward the excellent goal of not dying.   
And supposing I can succeed in that endeavor (which I have no real doubt   
of) you will be hearing more from me in due time. 

I think maybe I'll try competing with Zen over who can take longer   
to get their next installment out. 


	14. 14

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Fourteen   
Return of the Native   


by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber 

Disclaimer:   
This was written purposefully to offend you. Everything will suck so   
badly that you will be tempted to hurl yourself over the railing in a   
major act of Hamlet and be beaten within an inch of your life by ushers   
wearing tights while soliloquizing on the merits of your favorite   
recommended bleach. 

************************************************ 

Okay, coupla notes. One is that the rewrite is so alive and well and   
healthy that I ended up having to include a whole nuther universe in it.   
Amazingly enough, one that I'd asked if I could include a very long time   
ago, and even more amazingly, in the exact place where I'd intended to   
put it.   
Amazing how I predict myself like that. I must be psychic.   
The upshot of this is that because of my amazingly limited   
intellect, all random universes from now on will be reflecting the count   
in the rewrite version so I don't crawl off gibbering into the corner in   
confusion (the only versions I keep on my desktop are all rewrite ones). 

Just so you know, and in the plainest possible terms, the Random 6   
we start this with is the *same universe* as the Random 5 we ended the   
last one in. I just changed my own numbering scheme based on my own   
needs.   
When I get around to it, all previous episodes will be updated. Um,   
actually they are. But that's all on *my* computer and none of you can   
see it because you haven't asked nicely, so there. :P 

************************************************   
Random Universe 6 

Mikado leaned in and planted a kiss upon Akane Tendo's lips. Ranma   
floated in on the side. Akane tore away and stood, embarrassed, not   
quite sure what to say. Finally the silence grew unbearable and she   
snapped at Ranma.   
"Well?!!"   
Ranma's demeanor still hadn't budged, nor had he looked at them.   
"First of all, he let up pressure *far* too soon. I've never seen him   
botch a kiss that badly. Second, he must have lost the good taste I've   
always credited him for to kiss a somebody like you."   
Akane began boiling in rage. Ranma ignored it and tossed a small,   
black object to Mikado. "Here."   
The skater caught it and asked, "Huh? What's _this_ for?"   
Ranma recrossed his arms. "Sucking on a charcoal briquette is the   
only way *I've* found to get the bad taste out of my mouth, but then,   
I've never actually *kissed* her. So you might need something stronger." 

Ice began to melt under Akane's battle aura, coming to a complete   
eruption when Mikado actually popped the briquette into his mouth.   
"BOTH OF YOU! DIE!!!!!!"   
A crewman kept waving papers before the director, whispering   
complaints. "I don't *care*!" The director hush-snapped in return.   
"Everyone keep filming so long as we've got film in the cans. They've   
*never* fallen this deeply into the role before. We can fix the plot   
later. Get the scriptwriters on the line. Just *don't* stop cameras."   
Ranma weaved before the blows like he was actually enjoying himself.   
Mikado had taken one hit and was implanted in the wall above the far   
side of the rink. Ranma began to read a book, still dodging blows.   
They ran out of film in the last camera while they were still   
reloading the rest.   
Akane's mallet went flying as she no longer had the strength to hold   
onto it. She spilled and bit the ice, suddenly unable to keep up the   
footwork of her lunging attack on her own skill.   
Seeing the mallet go flying off toward the audience Ranma pushed   
off, arced on his skates comfortably underneath it, and caught the   
weapon one-handed.   
He chose then to fold up and put away his book, finished reading.   
"Sheesh, Akane, what's up? Why'd you suddenly get even *more*   
clumsy?"   
The stadium had grown eerily quiet, `til the silence was broken by a   
moan and at the far end of the rink Mikado stood up, holding his head.   
A second later another figure got up, doing the same thing. Only   
this one was Ranma.   
A the door of the arena, a horribly late actress breezed in upset at   
why no one had come and gotten her.   
Attention wandered from the Ranma on the ice, to the Ranma just   
behind the wall, to the Ranko standing in confusion at the door.   
There was an audible, stadium-wide, synchronized blink. 

Orchid put the bucket down, one more in female form and a blue   
blouse, having remembered a few details. "So *none* of you are the real   
thing? You're all just actors?"   
"Well, DUH." Akane's actress crossed her arms, still mightily upset   
over the insults earlier. She stiffened as a sword appeared miraculously   
at her throat.   
"You may not BE Akane, but you *look* like Akane, you *act* like   
Akane, you even *sound* like Akane and that girl has killed me multiple   
times through abusing my trust. I'm still somewhat upset at her about   
that. Perhaps I would be less so if I could recall a single, happy   
memory of her, but so far nothing's come up."   
Blue Ranko put the sword away.   
The actress gulped quite heavily and began feeling her neck.   
"So you actually change with hot water?" Ranma's actor asked,   
perplexed.   
Blue Ranko blinked. "Yeah. What happens to you?"   
He shrugged. "I change places with Akane."   
Blue Ranko had a facefaulting moment. "WHAT?!?"   
"He means me." Said the actress who *played* Ranko, over her folded   
arms. "It makes things difficult when we both have to be on screen, like   
those times we split apart. But we try and avoid gender-altering magic   
as much as possible, because if you haven't remembered to set it right   
before the end of filming you're stuck until when next the cameras roll.   
Which stinks."   
Blue Ranko was giggling into her handkerchief. "Somebody who only   
has to *pretend* to live my life and they're upset at how weird it gets.   
Oh, this is rich!"   
"Don't tell me *you* don't mind it." Ranko challenged hotly.   
Blue Ranko called up a chi ball around her fist, let loose and   
destroyed a shop counter. Then, with the same glowing hand, grabbed the   
thirty-something actor who played Tatewaki and restored years to him   
until he no longer needed makeup to look in his teens.   
"It has its advantages." Blue Ranko replied, taking a sip from her   
drink. "Besides, by this time I'm unsure how I'd take a normal life."   
"I can see how an assembly line job would strike you as a little   
dull." Asuza's actress agreed with a smirk. 

"Did you see what happened when the cameras spun down?" Mika   
demanded, hauling topper along by his arm to the rink entrance.   
"Yeah. Akane lost hold of her hammer." Topper weakly flapped along   
behind, wondering what had gotten Belldandy's actress so upset.   
"It's not JUST that!" The look-alike insisted. "Ranma *caught* it!   
You don't know him, I don't think, but I do. He's lived in my hometown   
since I was six and he's the clumsiest person alive. I've seen him walk   
into a utility pole in broad daylight with his eyes open. I'm surprised   
they can film on ice without him killing himself."   
"So they still musta had a camera on, huh?" Keiichi's actor asked.   
"Then why did Akane's actress lose her hammer? Besides, you and I   
both saw the cameras wind down." 

The director was schmoozing up to Blue Ranko when Belldandy and   
Keiichi both ran in. Blue Ranko/Orchid shot out of her chair, crying out   
brightly. "Belldandy-sama! Daddy!"   
This *might* not have brought the pair of them up short, what   
happened next, however, did. The ceiling of the stadium was pierced by a   
lightning stroke which left a steaming inscription on the floor. Asuza's   
actress was the first to nervously edge up to it.   
"Ranko, it's for you." She called back merrily.   
Two girls pointed at themselves questioningly.   
"Oh, pooh. The one in the blue shirt. The fun one. The one who   
skates."   
The named one bounded over. "Maybe you'd better just call me Orchid   
for now?"   
"Okay. Can I please be your friend?"   
Orchid read the note. It said. "That one is not the real Belldandy,   
and I would appreciate it if you were to ask my daughter's consent   
before your family railroads her into marrying you. P.S. That won't get   
you out of asking for *my* permission, of course. Signed, The Almighty   
One."   
"Um, sure. Only if I can call you Asuza, though."   
"Orchid, you could call me anything you want so long as you let me   
do some of what you do."   
Orchid giggled. "What did you say, Fred?"   
A frown and a huff. "Okay, maybe not *anything*."   
The two began giggling and exchanging confidences while Mika and   
Topper came over and looked down at the note. Topper stood looking   
around.   
"Cameras are still off, Mika."   
The actress who played Belldandy had grown a trifle pale. "Uh, Kay?" 

"Yeah?"   
"Catch me. I'm going to faint."   
And she did.   
Asuza and Orchid were talking.   
"You *really* don't like Genma, do you?"   
"Yeah. I wish I could do something so he wouldn't be my dad   
anymore." Blue Ranma agreed.   
"GRANTED. I'd actually been waiting for that." Reverberated a godly   
voice. "Use this when you get to an appropriate place." A metal amulet   
clattered to the table top before him, its jewels pulsing with light,   
building to a crescendo.   
Orchid screamed as the light engulfed her, then relaxed as no mists   
appeared and she could look around herself at the completely unchanged   
scene.   
"Whew! It didn't seem to do much." She sagged against the table. "So   
do you *really* want to do this stuff?" Orchid was asking her new   
friend.   
Asuza blink-blinked.   
Strange strains of music began to play from no identifiable source,   
a rising pulse and truly inspired synthesizer work racing up and down   
like a hummingbird evading a predator. The air in the room was split by   
black lightning creating a rift, out of which stepped a woman in tight   
and brief leathers, with spreading bat wings arcing from each of her   
shoulders.   
"Ranma, I have come for you."   
An actor fainted.   
"Not you."   
Orchid drew out a long metal sword. "Yeah, I'm ready."   
"Um, Orchid? I thought that I got to have a *wee little bit* of   
training before stuff like *this* happened?" Asuza complained.   
"Silence! You aren't even an annoyance to me, you're in no danger."   
The bat-winged woman intoned. "It is the blessed one that I am after."   
"Well, I think that you're being a *little* rude about it, is all."   
The demoness floated down to the ice.   
Orchid blinked, lowering her sword. "Urd?"   
The black-winged goddess raised a hand and a bolt of terrible, dark   
lightning erupted from her fingers and engulfed Orchid, blasting her out   
of the universe.   
Urd stretched, allowing the illusions to fall away and reveal her   
normal form. "Wow! That was fun. And to think, Father *asked* me to do   
it! Oh, well. Now I have to go see if Ranma's alright. Ta tah!"   
She blew a kiss to the stunned assemblage and was gone. 

*****   
A Short-Lived Universe That Isn't Going To Be Around Too Long   


"............aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA   
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH   
HHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   
***WHAM***   
Ranko hopped lightly out of the hole she'd created in the ground,   
shedding dust and concrete.   
"What do you think?" She asked lightly with her hands perched   
jauntily on her hips. "Should I have moved the left arm more? Did it   
look *too* much like a duck or am I beginning to achieve the swan, do   
you think?"   
The stunned passerby looked innocently over her shoulder to see an   
impact crater that *did* bear a good resemblance to a swan.   
He fainted.   
Ranko huffed. "Hey, when's anybody gunna appreciate art around   
here?" She bounded away from the impact sculpture she'd created by   
falling a thousand feet onto bare pavement.   
She used to think that materializing high in the air was   
inconvenient, now she relished it. Hey, if you're going to be doing it   
anyway, might as well leave your mark! (snicker).   
Dodging a few maglev cars and feeling a telltale cramp, Ranko   
hurried about the business of finding out where she lived. Discovering   
that it was once again the Tendo place, this time a split-level track   
home with a walled back yard, she headed over with the intent to raid   
the sisters of some feminine hygiene products and the go about finding   
more about this world. 

Nabiki noticed the red caret blinking in the upper viewscreen of her   
Sony Holoman and switched off the replay her virtual reality sim had   
been giving her of the latest college prep lecture. Removing the set,   
and sliding her floating chair (a seat without legs, or need of them)   
over to the console in her room, she saw that Ranma had arrived home.   
Hmm, half a day early, too. He wasn't supposed to come back until   
he'd mastered that Breaking Point thing, which the earliest computer   
modeling predictions still placed at tomorrow morning.   
Either he'd gotten better enough to outpace the software's projected   
curve of his development, highly unlikely given the amount of background   
data she had on him, or for some reason he'd given up. Also unlikely.   
Her tracking beacon placed him in the bathroom. Shutting down her   
console and sliding it once more into the frame of her desk, Nabiki got   
out her bath things and decided that it was time for another one of   
those `accidents'. 

Ranko looked up from what she was doing in the bathroom to find   
Nabiki come wandering in. The redhead grimaced. The `Occupied' sign had   
made about as much difference as the weather in Tibet. There had been a   
time when she'd *nailed* that door shut only to have Akane come barging   
in through it anyway.   
"Welcome to womanhood, Ranma." Nabiki quipped, seeing what the other   
had been doing and noting the pad and blood stains. A huge smile spread   
on her face. Solution found, mystery solved. "If you need any help   
Kasumi could let you in on a few things. For a small fee I could even be   
persuaded to go get her."   
"Thank you just the same, Nabiki." Ranko finished what she was   
doing, pulled everything together, and was gone.   
Nabiki blinked, suddenly wishing she'd disguised a microphone in a   
soap bottle so she could've had it with her. That had been a   
*significant* departure from Ranma's normal speech and behavioral   
patterns.   
But then, personality *did* shift during `those times' and someone's   
first period often threw things out of whack. She'd expected Ranma to   
get *less* polite when that happened, not more. Concluding that she   
merely had done an inadequate prediction Nabiki decided to shadow the   
martial artist for a day to gain extra data for analysis. 

Ranko noticed Nabiki tailing her, and sighed. Suspicions were   
already rising. Well, it was Nabs and you could expect her to be a   
little sharper than the others. Just to test one theory, the redhead   
ducked into a restaurant momentarily and emerged male.   
Sure enough, Nabiki followed him no problem. She was as fully aware   
of the curse as she'd ever been. 

Nabiki trailed after Ranma well outside what she knew to be his   
normal detection range. She wished that she could afford a few   
hovercams, but the bargain basement brands had poor performance and were   
too easily detected, while the good models cost way more than they were   
worth.   
Ranma went into a restaurant for hot water and emerged male.   
Interesting. She wondered if that was because he was having trouble   
dealing with his `problem'. She felt it likely. Maybe she could sell him   
a few books or friendly advise on the subject.   
Not that anybody *else* had Ranma's view on it, but it was worth a   
try. 

Ranma kept up a `I'm not thinking too hard, but sure lost in   
thought' wandering pace, making sure to look at things and judge   
Nabiki's reaction. Carefully, he stayed at the edge of her visual range   
when he first stopped by to look in the window of a woman's clothing   
shop.   
Expertly reading her reaction to this, he judged what his own   
reaction should be, and walked on. When next he stopped by to look in a   
dress shop window, he made sure Nabiki was quite close by, enough to   
catch the expression of revulsion mingled with worry that he'd schooled   
his features into. 

Aha! So that's why the little walk today. Manhood feeling a little   
insecure again, Ranma? Afraid of turning into a woman? Nabiki had to   
chuckle. Yes, she should have expected this. It was just so hard to   
predict when it would happen to him that she'd not even kept a calendar. 

She'd thought she'd worked it out that his clock reset every time he   
stopped being female. Apparently she'd been wrong, though it would take   
some detective work to hammer out the mechanics.   
All was ordinary. More data for her computer's Ranma prediction   
program (a piece of software that would have sold for big bucks among a   
small but actively-interested market) and another way in which she could   
feel superior to the insecure martial artist. 

Danger signals dropped off to nothing behind him, and Ranma could   
*feel* her suspicions draining away. It was a pity in it's way. By   
judging her body language during his `wandering' he could tell which   
ways she expected him to go, and by following those gain a clear enough   
picture of his usual haunts and hangouts.   
Oh well, the only way this could continue was if he reignited her   
curiosity. But it would defeat the whole purpose if he were to make her   
suspicious again.   
Unless... 

Ranma dropped off her scopes. At first Nabiki wasn't concerned. It   
was natural to lose someone periodically even when you're both downtown   
on the same moving sidewalk, and she'd been about ready to go home again   
anyway.   
But something seemed wrong about it. Especially when she searched   
for him with ever-increasing concern. She wasn't about to admit that   
she'd lost him. Doing a swift retreat to check out his favorite shops   
and still not finding him, Nabiki began to worry slightly.   
If there ever was a day when he'd turn unpredictable, it would be   
now. He'd proved that already. It would be just like him to do something   
amazingly stupid.   
Stopping to get a hot chocolate cup and fritter sticks, Nabiki   
munched in worry, going over facts. Okay, the guy obviously wasn't   
feeling like much of a guy at the moment. He went out, didn't want to   
stay a girl, and then what? What does he do when he doesn't want to   
be...   
The middle Tendo daughter bit her fritter stick in two thoughtfully.   
Pretty obvious, really. He'd try to do something to prove that he's a   
man, and there were *plenty* of willing candidates to prove that to him   
in a woman's way. This was bad. He'd already had several minutes head   
start and there were fiancees he could have already gotten to in that   
time. Even mustering all her resources it would be doubtful she could   
find enough emergencies to make them all unavailable to him.   
And running by standing probabilities, the only one *not* to be   
distracted would be the one Ranma'd gone to.   
Her mind already running damage control, Nabiki turned around and   
flattened herself against the chest of the man who'd been standing   
behind her. Looking up the muscled expanse she found Ranma's face gazing   
down on her, standing on a table.   
He made a point of appraising her clothes. "Nabiki, if you parade   
that luscious body of yours around a second more I may have to succumb   
to the temptation to take advantage of it."   
She gulped, but he was gone. Going weak in the knees she sat back   
at the cafe table.   
"Okay," she soothed herself after a stunned few minutes, thankfully   
alone. "THAT wasn't what I'd predicted." She sucked on her last fritter   
stick, dipped in chocolate. "So was that good or bad?" 

At his ease underneath her table, Ranma smiled. Weirdness *within*   
the bounds of the normal did not evoke suspicion. And it looked like   
he'd succeeded. Plus he'd had a chance to watch her check out all the   
spots she'd thought he might have hidden. A better way to know his   
hangouts could not be found, she'd literally been showing them to him.   
And he could tell alot about what he'd been from the places he went   
to and the people he'd hung out with. For instance, he could tell from   
all the arcades and movie places on his list that his `present self'   
took more pleasure in watching things than in doing them.   
A bit less jock and a slice more scholar, he'd judge, though still   
essentially clueless from how close Nabiki had been tailing him.   
Definitely weaker at the martial arts. Just at a guess he'd also have   
collected posters of various stars and shows, and would whine alot when   
his elders insisted he get in some special training.   
He was beginning not to like this version of himself, and was   
considering changing it. But that could wait until he'd gone back and   
reassured himself about the guesses on the room.   
Well, a brush on Nabiki's leg would capture her attention right   
where he wanted it to be while he went about being somewhere else. 

It was worse than he'd imagined. The posters overlapped each other.   
From the homework on the computer in his room he could judge that   
he'd been a fair math whiz, but the rest of it would have to be altered.   
He never minded acting like himself, it's just that he always insisted   
on playing strong roles.   
He hated bit parts.   
Ranma went into the yard to think about his options when he saw a   
heavily bearded Genma in a green silk gi leap over the outer wall,   
angrily unslinging a giant hammer.   
"Ranma! This is the *last time* you slip out of your training, boy!   
This time you're going to stay up there until the master himself   
releases you! Now get out the frame!"   
Okay, stay in character. This Genma expected no resistance at all.   
In spite of how badly he wanted to know how well the old guy could fight   
with a hammer, Ranma followed where he'd been pointing and opened a tool   
shed, hauling out the only thing that looked like a `frame'.   
Somewhat mollified that his son wasn't whining, Genma slung his   
hammer and opened up the device. Once unfolded it looked a bit like a   
weightlifting machine, with pulleys and racks of lead bricks attached to   
ropes. Genma shoved his son inside of the framework and began to attach   
ropes to his wrists and ankles, fitting them back to the weights on the   
other ends. When it was over Ranma found himself suspended in mid-air   
with a spongy but strong resistance to his every movement, increasing   
the more he moved.   
It was only when the old man had splashed him with cold water that   
Ranma realized she was *also* spread eagled! Finally the words about   
being left out for the master registered. So *this* was how Genma forced   
him to train? No *wonder* he'd hated it! 

Inside the house a little later Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, and the   
others (except for Nodoka Saotome, who was away for a few days) knelt   
around Happosai, who was lying prone and complaining about his aching   
joints. Ranma lounged nearby playing a simple tune on a small harp.   
"Ohhh," moaned Happosai. "That ingrate. How dare he hit his master   
like that--ohhh!"   
"Poor Grandfather Happosai." Kasumi murmured, placing a warm towel   
on the little hentai's forehead.   
"'Poor Happosai?'" Nabiki squealed. "What about the carp pond? And   
the rest of the yard? Did you see what Ranma did? It looks like a bomb   
exploded out there!" She turned to Ranma. "Spill it Ranma, how did you   
manage a blast like that?"   
Ranma glanced at her, but said nothing and did not pause in his   
playing. His gaze could not be interpreted. But she could swear he'd   
been asked to pay a price and decided it wasn't worth it.   
"That's odd." Genma-Panda signed while rumbling incoherently. "The   
boy's chi blasts have never been that strong. He *couldn't* hurt the   
master with one!"   
"Hmm, I'm not so sure, Saotome." Soun Tendo mused, briefly taking   
advantage of Happosai's helplessness by kicking him ("Owww!" Happosai   
moaned.). "That blast was almost like...like..."   
"Like Ryoga's Roaring Lion Bullet," Akane finished, frowning. "I   
mean, Ranma's Tiger Ball is similar to that, but I don't think it's   
nearly as strong, unless..." She thought for a moment, then glared at   
Ranma, who was still playing softly to himself. "Unless he's learned   
something else from Shampoo's great-grandmother, which means he's been   
chasing Shampoo again!" Jealousy rendering her features hideous, Akane   
punched Ranma in the head.   
Ranma ceased strumming and bolted upright, glaring. "Hey! What was   
that for?"   
"OK, Ranma, out with it! How did you learn that chi blast?"   
"Like I'd ever tell you." He removed himself a good distance away   
and began inspecting the harp for signs of damage. Finding none he   
stored it away and pulled out a simple wooden flute, a far more mobile   
instrument he could play while leaping and running. Just in case certain   
flatchested tomboys got even more out of hand.   
Kasumi softly rebuked him. "Ranma, you really shouldn't keep   
secrets. You know how it upsets Akane."   
"Hmph." Ranma frowned and folded his arms, flute still in hand. "The   
fact that I'm alive upsets that tomboy." He quipped.   
"I heard that." Akane briefly considered stomping over there to hit   
him.   
Ranma decided that he was sick of this person. Sick! Not once in   
what seemed like an eternity had she been a creature he'd like to spend   
time with. Okay, she could be cute. THAT'S IT! He'd known evil people   
who were drop dead gorgeous, and most of them could even be civil half   
the time. Heck, *Beryl* was considerate and even-tempered compared to   
this BITCH!   
He turned a meaningful glare on Akane. "Oh really?"   
"Admit it!" She snarled back at him, rising up and stomping one   
foot. "You've been hanging around with Shampoo, haven't you? I swear you   
make me sick with the way you're always glomping onto her and Ukyo!"   
"Good!" Ranma added, sticking out his tongue and pulling down one   
eyelid.   
"RAAAANNNNNMMMMAAA!!!" The fires of rage began glowing.   
He threw back a grin of feral delight so like a lion stalking prey   
that Akane's anger took a quick hike and she threw up her nose in   
disgust instead.   
"Oh, honestly! You can be such a jerk, Ranma!"   
Sometimes old ways work best. He flashed his best cocky grin. "Hey,   
at least I'm not a flatchested tomboy like you."   
"You jerk! Sometimes I wonder why any of us even put up with you."   
Akane crossed her arms and turned her back.   
"Well, some do it because they love me." He answered seriously.   
The room went still.   
Akane rounded on him with fists clenched and screaming. "I do *NOT*   
love you!!! You're a crossdressing pervert who's always grabbing at   
girls! I HATE you, Ranma! You make me SICK!!!"   
Ranma got up and walked out on the porch. "I said some. I never   
included you."   
Akane had a standing facefault where she went bone white and her   
eyes grew wide with tiny pinprick pupils. Her color returned with her   
anger. "BAKA!! You're just trying to make me jealous, aren't you! Well,   
fine," she added in her best you're-going-to-suffer-for-this-later tone.   
"Why *don't* you go out with them?"   
He nodded politely. "Thank you. I will." And he was out the side   
gate before anyone had recovered from their astonishment.   
"Ho, boy," Nabiki breathed. "You sure blew *that*, sis."   
"What do you mean, Nabiki?" Kasumi inquired, knowing Akane was too   
proud to ask for herself.   
Nabiki pulled out a palm-top, checking figures. "I don't know how   
anyone *got* him into this state, but Ranma meant what he said alright.   
He had almost no emotional investment in that fight. Something... or   
someone," Nabiki's glance went uninterpreted by few. "Has convinced him   
this engagement isn't worth it."   
"WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP IT?" Akane thundered.   
Everyone immediately quieted while taking two... or three... steps   
back.   
"And here I though it was Ranma who was going to be hormonal."   
Nabiki commented, half to herself, stepping out of harm's way.   
"SHUT UP, NABIKI!!! Besides, what would you know about it anyway?"   
Akane turned to storm out of the room.   
"Alot more than you'd think, and you should know dear sister. I've   
been helping you for over a year now." Nabiki spoke in flat tones to her   
sister's departing back.   
"Oh, my. Is it really that bad between them, Nabiki?"   
The middle Tendo sister sat back down, facing her eldest sibling.   
"I'm not kidding, sis. If Ranma's willing to act like this... it's bad." 

Genma had returned to human form, and crossed his arms confidently. 

"I'm sure they'll work it out. The boy *has* to, it's a matter of family   
honor."   
Nabiki made a vain attempt to appeal to his reason. Then gave it up   
and redirected the explanation/appeal to her sister. "Look Kasumi, you   
know how much I read, right? Well, I was going through some of Steven   
Covey's works..."   
"Who?" Both fathers interrupted.   
"Authored Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? The man who   
*created* parts of modern management theory? The only parts that work?   
He also wrote Seven Habits books for businesses and families, I don't   
suppose you've heard of him?"   
Blank looks.   
She gave up that tack. "Anyway, in one of his books he introduced an   
Emotional Bank Account concept. He said that everyone's relationship   
with everyone else can be described in terms of a bank account."   
"I can see how that might've appealed to you, girl." Genma quipped.   
She froze him with a glare. "Look at it in terms of deposits and   
withdrawals, Mr. Saotome. Any relationship begins with a certain   
balance, whether that be high or low. From then on any interaction you   
take with that person either adds to that balance or takes away from it,   
just like a checking account. And *just* like a checking account, there   
are penalties for getting into a negative balance. A deposit might be   
something like a smile, or giving someone the benefit of the doubt. A   
withdrawal would be hitting them, or calling them names, or getting mad   
at them. Do you understand?"   
"But that's ridiculous, Nabiki." Her father objected. "Ranma and   
Akane do that to each other all the time, and it hasn't impacted the   
engagement. Our families are still to be joined."   
"Ranma doesn't do mean stuff HALF as often as Akane does! And he   
does other things for her, daddy!" Nabiki snapped back. "He does stupid   
things like helping her out in fights, or *trying* to be nice to her.   
He's even sacrificed his *cure* for her! Ranma has *not* been going   
without making deposits! Akane has."   
"Well, that should make it alright then."   
There were times when Nabiki wanted to hit her father.   
"They're NOT the same account, daddy. Each one is maintained   
separately."   
"But if Akane has been going so long that way, wouldn't she have run   
into the negative a long time ago?" Kasumi was trying to understand.   
"Exactly." Nabiki shook her head and glared at their parents, who   
weren't even paying attention. "So we've all been throwing bonuses into   
her account for her. Mr. Saotome's thrown in honor on her behalf, and   
the rest of us have been giving her loans by supporting her. Daddy and   
Mr. Saotome have made it clear they want this engagement more than   
anything. You've treaded him nicely and asked him to be nice in turn to   
Akane. All of that *works!* But it only works so far.   
"Mr. Saotome's told Ranma that if he doesn't marry Akane, he'll have   
no honor. So Ranma gets to choose, which will make him more miserable?   
Marrying Akane or not having any honor? Both our dads have told him the   
engagement's got to work or else. Well, the `or else' mostly means they   
won't treat him well at all. So Ranma gets to decide whether having our   
fathers hate him could hurt more than the way Akane treats him. You're   
nice to him, but demand in turn that he does nice things for Akane. But   
if Akane makes his life hell every time he tries to be nice to her   
pretty soon he won't do it. It's not worth it to *anyone* to get ten yen   
only to pay out a hundred, and then do the same deal over and over   
again."   
Nabiki sighed loudly. "The plain fact of the matter is that our   
sister treats him like low grade garbage and expects him to put up with   
it. Frankly, I can't see *anything* she's done that could be considered   
a deposit. I know I'm not there for most things, but even when she does   
him a favor it seems like she finds a way to make it hurt. To be honest   
I think Ranma was just desperate for friends when he got here, and so he   
was willing to throw a HUGE balance into the first account anyone cared   
to open with him. But no matter how huge the opening balance, when you   
make nothing but withdrawals sooner or later you're going to wind up   
empty."   
"So are you saying that not even honor will make this happen?"   
Kasumi asked in concern.   
"NONSENSE!!!" Genma appeared, shouting in the middle daughter's   
face. "My boy will *never* turn his back on honor!   
Nabiki crawled up from where she'd fallen backwards. "Do the math   
yourself, Mr. Saotome. If you say `if you value this, you'll do that'   
often enough, and if `that' just becomes unbearable, then sooner or   
later he'll decide he doesn't care about whatever `this' is."   
"So we've got to keep Akane from putting her account in the   
negative." Soun rejoined the conversation.   
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Too late, daddy." She rose to her feet and   
began exiting the room. "Him walking away like that was an overdraft   
penalty. He's already decided he's not going to marry her for honor, and   
he's not going to do it for his mom or for us either. Frankly, judging   
by the look he gave on the way out, I think her account's been canceled.   
And I *really* don't think my sister can be nice enough to start another   
with him."   
"But I'm *sure* that Akane loves him!" Soun protested.   
"HE has made more deposits than withdrawals, so *his* account with   
*her* is positive. SHE has been content to do nothing but hurt him. As   
far as *he's* concerned Akane can go suck pond water." 

*****   
Heaven 

"A rather perceptive Nabiki, isn't she?" Urd winked.   
"Yes, I'm glad she listened to that book I loaned her. She can be   
very kind when she understands the reasons for being that way."   
The two goddesses watched on a screen bound on all sides by living   
branches as two universes met and began to collide, the dominant traits   
of each overcoming the weakest of the other.   
Universes merging would be a great spectacle save for the fact that   
such events happened as often as them spinning off from each another.   
One or two extra divine beings paused to watch this one, though.   
Even in the case of something as common as a sunrise, a truly   
spectacular one can draw attention. 

*****   
The Short-Lived Universe and Universe C 

Not many people are able to tell when universes collide.   
The change swept over the Tendo household, leaving in its wake a   
fourth daughter, reducing Kasumi's age by a year and effecting minor   
changes on the house itself, such as the addition of an extra girl's   
room and changing records that reflected Akane as now the   
next-to-youngest.   
And, as usual, the change went completely unremarked upon.   
"Well, I can perfectly understand. I mean, she treats him like   
garbage, why *shouldn't* he walk? I woulda done it *months* ago."   
Kasumi clucked at her new youngest sibling. "Now Serena, you know   
how much it upsets daddy when you talk like that. And I'm sure Ranma   
really cares for Akane."   
Serena snorted, rolling onto her belly. "Once maybe. But even if   
they were *destined* to be together I still woulda given her the finger   
and jammed if I were him. I mean, like, she's so totally cruel. Have you   
ever, like, any *one* of you, seen her do something nice for him? I'm   
sure that's what Nabs was talking about."   
Kasumi paused. She could think of times, but there was also the fact   
that Akane did her best to act uncaring even when she *did* do something   
for Ranma. And those times where she acted with good intent always had   
some drawback. Like her cooking for him. Even Kasumi couldn't admit that   
to be a loving act, not after the thirtieth time. Only a willful refusal   
to see could have prevented Akane from learning her food was toxic.   
After all, she ate it often enough herself...   
...but only *after* forcing it on Ranma.   
"Hmph," Soun grunted disapprovingly. "Well, it's not as if anyone   
else wanted the scarred cripple. Ranma should be grateful that my   
daughter was willing to marry someone as hideous as he is."   
That made her feel bad just thinking about it. Serena went to get   
her cat, going up to her room to talk with the feline, landing on her   
bed and ranting in the solitude of her   
purposefully-messy-because-it's-more-private-that-way bedroom.   
"Hey, it's not as if it's Ranma's fault that his father's totally   
Mr. Bu Fu'd over all these skanky training techniques. I mean, barf me   
out! Okay, so he's a little grisly, and he's a bit of a marv, but you   
only want to put a bag over his head `cause his father's this total   
dweebmeister about this totally nauseating stuff. It's like, only   
slightly obvious (I mean, only so clear that Stevie Wonder could see it)   
that without all those scars he'd be a vicious dude, a real babe."   
The cat blinked.   
"Would you mind repeating that in a language I can understand,   
Serena?" 

Ranma was walking down the street when the change came. He was   
equipped to notice.   
As the alterations struck Ranma lurched. His left arm now ended in a   
stump slightly above the elbow, and his body felt like divots had been   
taken out of it all over. One of his legs had become shorter, and into   
him poured traumatic memories of hours under the surgeon's knife   
attempting, sometimes without great hope, to save his life.   
And he remembered the lions that had mauled his body, with his   
father looking on.   
Suffering now from a pronounced limp, Ranma noted the trenchcoat and   
turtleneck he was now wearing, and adjusted his gait so that the limp   
was not obvious. Pulling the hat a little closer about his head, he   
immediately found cover, ran a hurried assessment, and performed a   
search of the memories just implanted.   
No scars on his face. That was a miracle. The rest of his body was   
mangled, with martial arts training serving partially to offset the   
deformities. He remembered his mother believed him to be dead, and had   
demanded the suicide of Genma because of it. Genma had fled and then   
joined the yakusa, who had use for a man willing to maim his own son.   
Nodoka hadn't had any problem getting a divorce.   
Jusenkyo had happened, and because his female form was significantly   
less scarred than his male one he could remember having spent the bulk   
of his time in it. However, they'd never visited the amazons and since   
they'd been living under an assumed name, none of the early fiancees,   
Kaori and Ucchan usually, had found them.   
Which meant nobody but the Tendos knew about all this.   
Suited Ranma perfectly, but it *did* set his acquired knowledge from   
Nabiki back a bit. Everything that had just happened he probably   
remembered differently than anyone else who'd been involved in it.   
Well, *some* things remained the same. However it'd happened,   
whatever the reason, he *had* bested Happosai that morning.   
He took out the Naban Mirror and thought about it.   
After considering his request, he found it easy enough to summon a   
tear. With a wistful smile and *lots* of experience, Ranma spoke to the   
now glimmering mirror. "Take me back five minutes ago, to where I can   
become completely cured of infirmity in the most expedious way possible   
without ill effect."   
Appearing suddenly in the air five hundred yards above Jusenkyo,   
Ranma ruefully thought that while not intelligent as such, the mirror   
was still *awfully* spiteful. Whether or not he'd live to get whatever   
cure there was here was entirely up to him. As he fell Ranma could feel   
the unimprinted pools tugging at him, pulling him toward that side of   
the valley.   
One pool of Drowned Mangled Martial Artist coming up.   
Seeing as he was a specialist in mid-air combat who could out-fight   
many flying creatures. It was simple enough for Ranma in the seconds he   
had to identify the pools most strongly drawing him, and use their   
influence to somewhat counteract each other.   
Unfortunately, this left him aiming straight for one of the cursed   
pools.   
There was perhaps nobody else in the world who could have done it,   
but Ranma further adjusted his fall and grabbed hold of a pole as he   
angled past. That it turned out to be weakened by rot and snapped under   
his grasp should be no surprise to anyone.   
"NoooOOOOO....." *Splash* "Gurgle."   
The Guide looked up from where some Amazons were about to judge a   
challenge fight, which the scream had interrupted.   
"Who die, great grandmother?" One of the amazon participants asked   
of the judge.   
"I have no idea, Shampoo. Just that he hadn't died from the terror   
of so long a drop says something of him. Where do you suppose he could   
have fallen from?"   
Alternating sensations of hot and cold flashed through Ranma's body   
as he hit the bottom and looked up at the sparkling surface above him. A   
familiar shifting and altering of his physical self proved that this was   
a cursed pool, and not one seeking to drown and make an imprint from   
him.   
Before the relief could manifest, a sensation besides that of the   
hot/cold flaring penetrated. Something hard was lying beneath him. Ranma   
grabbed the object, and pried it loose from the surrounding mud. A   
moment later he broke the surface.   
"A shield?" An odd circular design with a star in the center. He   
noted how incredibly light the object was and pushed a length of blonde   
hair away from his face.   
Ranma froze for a moment then grabbed a strand of hair to examine   
it. Blonde?   
"Oh, too bad sir, you fall in Spring Of... Drowned...?" The Guide   
blinked. The pool was steaming? Sir was still a sir? That *used* to be   
the spring of Drowned Pustulant Swamp Creature. Looking over the figure   
stepping out of the pool the Guide decided that he might want to take a   
dip later.   
Ranma had emerged from the steaming pool as the shining definition   
of lean muscle mass and perfect proportions. From his blond hair and   
blue eyes to the well defined tip of his smallest toe he'd acquired a   
modest kind of heroic beauty that spoke of millions available in the   
modeling industry.   
His clothes had shredded with his growth from smallish Japanese to   
largish American, but for his part, Ranma was glad enough to have two   
arms and whole flesh again.   
Cologne wondered why it was suddenly so hot and steamy in the   
valley, most of the rest of the amazons were already deciding pecking   
order.   
Behind Ranma, the bottom of the pool inverted itself to become a   
small hillock. A man in oriental-styled, close-fitting armor flew up   
nearby. "How stupid of me, I should have done that when I created that   
pool. It never occurred to me, after I'd *drowned* many of my enemies   
here, that the magic of the pools could be used to raise them up again." 

Ranma finished assessing his new form and looked up at the man,   
narrowing his eyes. "Who are you?"   
The man swirled his cape. "I am Mandarin. And considering what pool   
you've fallen into, I'll make you an offer. Serve me and I'll treat you   
well."   
A bargaining smirk forced its way to Ranma's lips. "Yeah? What kind   
a service, for what kinda reward? You'll forgive me, but there're people   
who'll abuse both if you aren't clear. There are some tribes that   
consider roasting you alive as treating you alot better than feeding   
your flesh to insects."   
Mandarin's lips quirked in amusement. "Interesting. I'll have to try   
that out. But in exchange for your unquestioning loyalty to me, I will   
repay you with riches beyond your imagining. Oh, and you can also have   
as many of these amazons as you like. I was just about to defeat them   
and subjugate their tribe to my servitude."   
"Ah." Ranma responded. Okay, a guy who leads his enemies to Jusenkyo   
and drowns them, thinks feeding people to bugs should be amusing, and   
demands loyalty while enslaving women. Yah, he could safely classify   
this one as a Bad Guy.   
"Who gets to decide which amazon belongs to whom? And how many other   
minions would they have to be split between?"   
"Oh, I don't care. I'll let you fight for it, if you want. That   
should be amusing. And while I'll insist on the cream of the village for   
myself, you could have as many of the remainder as you want. There's   
plenty to go around."   
"Can I have that cute... Great Lightning Trident!!!"   
Ranma called out his favorite attack phrase and quite nearly caught   
Mandarin by surprise with it. The supervillain had been keeping close   
guard however and had not quite been caught undefended. The trifoil beam   
of energy splashed and shook against an impenetrable force field around   
the villain.   
"Foolish boy, what did you gain by that?"   
Ranma's eyes narrowed. Not much. He'd taken down stronger foes with   
less, but he'd *not* expected so strong a magical defense. Mandarin   
raised one bejeweled hand and began pointing with a ring. Ranma didn't   
need to be told that what came out of it would probably not be good for   
him.   
The field of cold that followed lived up to his expectations.   
As Mandarin followed cold with light, heat, electricity and fire   
Ranma was unavoidably reminded of his first fight with Akane. The guy   
kept throwing stuff from his magic rings that came about as close to   
connecting as Akane's blows had. When Ranma pressed the attack, however,   
the guy would rely on his force field to defend him, and so far the   
martial artist couldn't find any weaknesses in it.   
Of course, trying to gave him a good estimate of the new   
capabilities of his transformed state. Strength was about the same,   
acrobatics were alot easier, which he found surprising given his   
increased mass, and his reach was alot better.   
In all, alot better than he'd expected given the nature of this   
place.   
Mandarin realized very quickly that he was outmatched in close   
combat and, given how mobile Ranma was, staying out of range even with   
flight was not terribly easy. Remaining behind his armor's force field   
was not appealing, as it gave him limits on the uses of his rings and   
the increase in his fighting strength given by the field was useless as   
he'd yet to successfully strike the martial artist.   
So Mandarin did what any bad guy would do in a stalemate. He   
cheated.   
Ranma got bad vibes when a ring Mandarin hadn't used before began to   
glow. When the guy looked like he might laugh Ranma got nervous, and   
when suddenly a bonbori blow nearly caught him from behind he got   
concerned.   
Shampoo had stalked up on him, and proceeded to lay into Ranma with   
all that she had. He only had to look into the amazon's eyes to know   
that the guy had her under some form of mind control.   
A sudden blast from behind told him that Mandarin had saved his best   
for last. Bolts of concussive force rained down, shattering ground and   
spilling ponds. Ranma was forced to disable Shampoo and carry her away   
to save her from a multiple splash of assorted cursed waters.   
Mandarin laughed. "My. The pond certainly acted swiftly. I wouldn't   
have expected saving the innocent reflexes to form in anyone from merely   
a little dunking. I wonder how many skills and attributes you've gained,   
boy? I certainly never saw my *old* opponent throwing energy blasts like   
you've done. What other abilities had he managed to keep hidden from   
me?"   
Ranma laid Shampoo down and smiled, then tried to crack his knuckles   
and had to frown. Whoever'd drowned in that spring must've felt the   
habit beneath him. While he knew it was a bad one Ranma still felt   
somewhat cheated.   
Silently resigned that he'd now have to abandon one of his few   
vices, and oddly puzzled by the surge of accomplishment that design   
brought with it, Ranma removed an item from stuffspace and confronted   
the hovering Mandarin.   
"Not so many as you'd think." He said, grinning. "All I needed was   
to fight you. Now this device will have recorded all your powers and   
I've only to give it to the master sorcerer who created it to give him   
the ability to counter all your abilities. You are finished, Mandarin.   
Your every defense, every attack will be known to him when he comes to   
destroy you."   
The Chinese villain's eye's flew wide. He thrust out a hand and   
Ranma nearly didn't dodge whatever it was that vaporized the ground and   
left a mid-sized crater where he'd been.   
"Finish him!" Mandarin called, enslaving the mind of yet another   
amazon. Ranma purposefully sneered at her and, laughing, dodged all her   
attacks while the villain himself began to fume. In moments Ranma was   
leaping and cavorting and dodging himself as the head man followed him   
himself, flinging bolts of every kind and element.   
Following him right where Ranma wanted to go.   
"What?!!" The supervillain cried as his feet stuck to the surface of   
a pool he'd intended to float by. The magical energies of the spring   
began to swirl and the water of the pool began to climb up his body,   
dragging him down in. "What's happening!?!"   
Ranma stood with crossed arms and sad eyes. "Exactly what you did to   
others. The springs at Jusenkyo draw the unusual or the unique to them,   
you know that. You even *said* you'd used that to destroy your enemies.   
I figured you'd used your flying power to evade them before, but the   
closer you get, the stronger the pull. " He tossed a wave off one   
shoulder. "Once you bear a curse or two, the springs aren't interested.   
So I was able to go as close as I needed to to get you into an   
unimprinted pool. Spring of Drowned Chinese Supervillain sounds about   
right."   
Mandarin stared in disbelieving fury. Appalled that the trick had   
been used against him. "But you can't *do* that! You're a hero. Heroes   
aren't allowed to permit death. Save me! I beg of you!"   
Sighing, Ranma picked up a bamboo pole. Then he jabbed the man under   
the water with it, pinning him to the spring's floor. "Sorry," he spoke   
to the surface of the pond. "But no matter the reason, assisting evil is   
not a good act. I found that a long time ago, and paid for it. And what   
of the harm you'd do to others if I'd been stupid enough to save you,   
huh? Aren't I responsible for them as well? Letting you rape and   
enslave women I'm sworn to protect is *alot* worse than killing you to   
stop it. If I fell into the kind of moral trap you'd just laid for me   
there's no way I'd ever win. Some kinda hero *I'd* be.   
"Besides, seeing justice done to an admitted murderer *is*   
preventing death. You can't kill any more people, therefore, I've saved   
lives."   
Ranma frowned, rolling a taste around in his mouth. "Sheesh, I sound   
like I'm in a bad play." He tossed the pole away from him when the body   
had stopped struggling and an appropriate extra minute had passed for   
security. He turned to see Cologne confronting him, holding out a piece   
of paper.   
He took it. "Uh, what's this?"   
"Oh, nothing much." Cologne hopped a few steps away. "Just a death   
sentence for the man you'd just killed. In case your conscience needed   
it." She stabbed a look back at him over her shoulder. "Now would you   
mind explaining why you came here, and how you managed to know so much   
about these cursed springs?"   
He laughed softly. "For purely selfish reasons, and I'd heard a tale   
or two. Now if you'll excuse me..." Ranma pulled out a shovel and began   
to fill in the spring of drowned chinese supervillain.   
"What are you *doing*? Didn't you just create that?"   
"Yup." He continued his work. "And so I know that as soon as I turn   
my back on it someone who dislikes me will fall into it. I know the   
rules." He finished destroying the spring and patted the earth on top of   
it.   
"Oh, well do you know the rule about anyone destroying one of these   
springs bringing a curse upon him that his life will never be free of   
them?" The matriarch softly rebuked.   
"Of course! What do you take me for, a fool?" He turned on her   
happily. "But I've lived two thousand years under one Jusenkyo curse or   
another. I've had no less than fifteen different ones (and let me tell   
you, spring of drowned cat gave me quite a turn when I fell into it way   
back when). I figure I've been living that anyway, I can deal with it   
now."   
"Oh, I see. Well, what of that artifact that the sorcerer gave you?   
Shouldn't that be returned, now that you've defeated his opponent?"   
Ranma leaned over and handed the object to her. "A hairbrush. Want   
it?"   
Cologne fell off her stick.   
He smiled.   
He'd no sooner turned his back than Ryoga fell on the blank earth   
where the spring of chinese supervillain had been.   


To Be Continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

Tra la la la la la. Ahem. Okay, in spite of my timely warning, many   
of you will have already warmed up your flamethrowers and be tempted to   
call in favors from your local meat packing plants so that you could set   
up cow skulls on poles all over my lawn. 

I assure you that none of this is necessary. I have quite enough cow   
skull poles left over from the last time. My neighbors are becoming   
increasingly worried that I may give their occult voodoo rites a bad   
image. The lady with the infinite tattoos of gore and carnage spiraling   
all over her body is especially concerned, and has warned me that they   
may be in poor taste. 

Not the tattoos, the skull poles. 

So, since there are only so many tasteful uses for the poor things,   
and since I can't think of one, I must make the request of you that all   
replies be G rated. Thank you. 

For the followers of Akane, I stole practically *all* of the dialog   
for the argument scenes. The winner who can guess where will get his own   
wiffle bat pending the fall of evil in the world and assuming I can   
scrounge up the change at the time. 

As for the rest of you, who do *not* pay homage to her, nor demand   
weekly sacrifices of fanfiction, no, I don't think badly of her. I'd   
just as soon fewer of her adherents invested in cow skulls. 

Anyway, two best sites for the finding of my fanfiction: 

Mirrors Multiplied Homepage by Celeste Byrd   
Attractive, Occasionally Current, and Best Source of Available Rewrites: 

http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/seagate/131/mirrors/ 

Moon Romance Page by Luna & Artemis   
Elegant, No Rewrites, But Cutting Edge on Normal Releases:   
http://solo.abac.com/moonromance/o/mirrmu.htm 

For those of you wishing to reach mine zelf (no, *not* with sharp,   
pointy sticks. Go amuse yourselves in the slime) I am jared who is found   
at netuser dot communist, except that it's not a red flag waving   
socialist philosophy and my name is not jared-who-is-found. I'm sure   
that if you apply a little intelligence that you'll work it out just   
fine. 

Anyone know where can Zen be found? I've got a few extra skull poles   
that he can borrow, just in case he's gotten too few from his own   
adoring fans. When is Long and Winding Three coming out anyway? Anybody   
know? Asking him would probably be the polite thing to do. So much so   
that I may even consider doing it.   
  
  
  



	15. 15

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Fifteen   
A Wish or Two   
or   
Dark Reflection   


by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber 

Disclaimer:   
Anything you read here is a figment of your own imagination. We   
officially deny that it exists. 

************************************************ 

Universe C, Jusenkyo Springs 

Shampoo was still clinging close to her hero's side when Dowel rose,   
bearing one of the energy rifles Mandarin had distributed to his willing   
servants among the amazons.   
Shampoo flared, literally.   
Ranma leapt squeaking from her curvaceous side as Shampoo lit up   
with celestial burnings. Her hair rose on end and became living purple   
flame as her body became enveloped in an aura of white fire which became   
a blazing egg that burned for long moments before shattering into   
thousands of sparkling motes, revealing Shampoo in a white mask and   
one-piece, boots and gauntlets emblazoned with blue and yellow flames.   
Dowel was an amazon. She got off seven shots with the energy blaster   
during that time.   
Shampoo raised an arm even more shapely than before and shot forth a   
stream of white fire that left a scar across the entire floor of the   
valley, incidentally incinerating the former amazon and servant of   
Mandarin in the process.   
Azure and some of Shampoo's other friends began poking about   
wondering which of the pools might have splashed her, and if there might   
be another use left in it.   
Shampoo calmed and her blazing aura faded away.   
Ranma chuckled and rubbed at his burns, looking at the woman now as   
pale skinned as he was and noticing that, like him, she was now somewhat   
taller and better formed. "Um, I guess I didn't get you away from all   
that water in time, did I?"   
*Glomp!*   
"Shampoo no mind!" 

A week later Nabiki presented her report to their fathers. "I can't   
find a trace of Ranma. Whatever it is he's is doing, he's managed to   
avoid leaving any sort of official record behind him. He hasn't visited   
any sort of port, airport or hotel. There's been no evidence of either   
of his forms in the `tubes or public transit logs. He hasn't thumbed any   
transactions to his bank account, logged into a public terminal,   
downloaded his schoolwork or even renewed his prescriptions."   
"Prescriptions?" Serena, presently in ditz mode, asked to preserve   
her illusion.   
Nabiki rolled her eyes, long ago having given up trying to see   
through the facade. She sighed. "Ranma needs alot of medication because   
of what the lions did to him. Mostly painkillers, but also some pretty   
fancy stuff to keep some of his organs working after the damage they   
suffered. The government tracks that stuff pretty thoroughly and Ranma's   
not gone after any. We've still got his old bottles in the bathroom. How   
he lives with the pain I couldn't tell ya."   
Her eyes narrowed and bored into her dark-haired younger sister.   
"That is, if he's not elected for a death slightly less gruesome than   
what awaits him when those organs give out."   
Akane, angry for a week now at how Ranma'd spoken to her, turned her   
face sharply away and continued pumping weights. Her anxiety and concern   
had been building this past week, but she wasn't about to admit to them   
yet.   
Nabiki decided then and there that she didn't like Akane very much.   
Shrugging, she addressed their fathers. "He's gone. If it weren't for   
the fact that he's about to lose some important bodily functions and   
there's not a forest left in Japan I'd say he was living off the wild.   
But however he's doing it, there aren't any mysterious one-armed bodies   
turning up either."   
"Probably living out of a box somewhere." Akane managed to sound   
annoyed.   
Nabiki gave a cool look. "There are no vagrancy reports, and you   
have to admit he's pretty distinctive. Besides, this whole city was   
built fresh after it was leveled by that meteor sixteen years ago. We   
don't have a single alley or slum where he *could* put a refrigerator   
carton. Anyway, gotta go."   
Nabiki left the room. Both Genma and Soun remained seated with   
crossed arms while Akane lifted weights and Kasumi did some sewing.   
Serena gave a squeak as she recalled her homework, and dashed upstairs   
after Nabiki.   
There was a long moment of silence.   
"So, what do you think, Saotome? I don't think offhand that she'd   
have any reason for lying."   
"No, Tendo. My own contacts bear her out. I've had a data hacker or   
two checking all the logs, and the crime family *controls* all the   
sources of false IDs. He's not running about with masked prints, and   
everything else bears her out. It's just like the boy's up and   
disappeared."   
"There are still private vehicles."   
"Yes, but who would help him? He has no friends, I've seen to that.   
We've focused everything on getting the maimed idiot to *have* to accept   
this engagement. He doesn't have the training or experience to hotwire a   
car, without even talking about modern security measures, and from what   
I'd done to his reputation I can't think of a stranger helping him. What   
does that leave?"   
Both men sat in long and empty thought.   
"Hmm, not much I'm afraid. He *could* have sold those trinkets he'd   
stolen from the Master. Maybe..."   
"The money would go directly into his account, Tendo, and he would   
have had to make a charge off of it, just like his regular savings.   
Without a pretty good false ID he couldn't have started a new account,   
and I've been diligent in keeping him ignorant on how to make the   
underworld work. If he'd been after a new identity, I would have heard   
of it."   
Kasumi shifted her weight and adjusted the angle of her sewing   
basket for her new position. Nabiki was known to both fathers as too   
clever by half, and Serena had quite a loose tongue, but when neither of   
them were in the room Genma and Soun would speak quite freely. Unnoticed   
by either of them, Kasumi continued to monitor the transmitter hidden   
amidst her sewing.   
Upstairs, and locked in her room, Nabiki slid her headset on and   
listened while recording every word.   
"So what does that leave?" Soun echoed Genma's earlier statement.   
"That's pretty much it for the traditional ways, my friend."   
"There are so many places less developed than Graviton City. Perhaps   
if he'd gotten out there, outside of the technological showcase they've   
built here, maybe even one of the countries where they still use cash?"   
"He'd still have to get there from here, my friend. And if he can do   
that it's pretty much hopeless tracking him wherever he is."   
"What!?" Akane blurted out, reminding them that they weren't alone.   
"Does that mean that you're just giving up, then? You're his FATHER!   
What do you mean you can't find him? Mister Saotome, you've been with   
the Yakuza ever since your wife divorced you. Don't you have any   
resources that you can call on?"   
"So does that mean you're agreeing to marry him?" Mr. Tendo asked.   
Akane froze and rounded angrily. "I didn't say that! I hate the   
ugly, disgusting, freak. I don't care if he's sleeping in garbage and   
eating lawn clippings! The freak's ugly enough that he deserves it   
anyway! But I'm not about to have the whole school muttering about how   
that disgusting pervert ran out on me! Do you hear me? I won't let   
them!"   
Akane stomped out, the directive clear.   
"Well, Saotome?"   
"I'd hoped that it wouldn't come to this, Tendo."   
"Come to what?"   
Genma scratched his beard a moment before reaching into his sleeve   
and pulling out from the green silk a small talisman on a chain. "A long   
while ago our Master put someone seeking power onto the existence of   
some Amazons in China, who had some valuable treasures. This arrived for   
him a few weeks ago with a note of thanks."   
"Naturally he never got it."   
"Naturally. I read the instructions and apparently it grants the   
user one wish. The sender said that he was satisfied with his own haul   
and wanted to see what Happosai would do with this."   
Kasumi shifted her position as if to get more comfortable, covering   
the fact that the video pickup in her sewing basket was now focused on   
the item. Up in her room, Nabiki was watching the proceedings through   
her Holoman, absently munching on a rice cracker as her mind absorbed   
what was happening.   
"So how are we going to use it?" Soun asked.   
"Well, we could use it to bring my son back."   
"Hmm, good idea. But what if he left again? From what Nabiki was   
saying he was pretty upset at Akane."   
Genma grinned. "No problem, Tendo. From what I read in the   
instruction there are two trial wishes before you can make the real one.   
They give you a few minutes to see what the results of your wish would   
be like."   
"Hmm, that sounds..."   
Genma lifted one green-sleeved arm above his head, dangling the   
talisman by its chain. "I wish that Ranma were forced back to us!" 

*** 

The door slammed open to the Tendo home and the family looked up   
from their various activities as in stormed a furious redheaded female   
in tight-fitting green combat fatigues.   
The redhead went straight over to Genma and picked the man up by his   
beard, lifting him by his facial hair with one hand and slamming him   
back up against a wall.   
"Okay, that's it. You die." She growled, drawing a knife and placing   
it against Genma's exposed throat.   
"Hey! You can't just come in here and kill people!" Nabiki objected,   
fingering the knob on her brooch that would set her concealed camera   
running. "Who are you anyway?"   
The redhead flashed blue eyes to Nabiki and suddenly the mercenary   
became *very* sure that she never in her life wanted anyone that angry   
with her. With flat eyes the girl replied. "Imagine me with one less   
arm."   
The eyes of the household grew round and wide as they finally   
recognized the girl in green fatigues and battle webbing with pistols   
strapped to both hips as Ranma's female side. A Ranko who'd somehow   
corrected all the scar tissue and infirmities of her mauling so long   
ago, and, indeed, now had a full set of arms.   
Ranko shook the man in the green gi by his beard. "This contemptible   
waste of human life has been supplying chemical weapons through his   
Yakuza contacts into the hands of the triads and the Chinese government.   
And as if that wasn't bad enough he keeps pulling stunts that make that   
look tame. For a year now he's been trying to get me to come back here   
so he could fatten his already huge ass on my sweat. Oh, that and I   
suppose make me marry one of you. This last try was a message saying   
that my mom was about to die."   
Ranko turned her face back to Genma's, revealing that she was *very*   
upset, just how so becoming increasingly obvious. "I got that message   
during an assault on a communist airfield they'd been using to drop gas   
bombs *you'd* sold them onto crop fields worked by my people! Once I'd   
confirmed it, I had to press a night attack. I *hate* night attacks!   
Fourteen men and amazons died taking that field who didn't have to if   
I'd been able to properly prepare! All so I could come back here and   
stop the men you had POISONING MY MOM!"   
Genma grinned triumphantly in spite of his position. "But now you're   
here and there's nothing to stop you from getting married and taking   
your bride back with you to China! Or even staying here and continuing   
on after your old man, eh?"   
Ranko dropped her father and had drawn a pistol so fast the others   
had trouble convincing themselves she hadn't had it in her hand all   
along. "Allow me to make something *perfectly* clear, Genma. Simply   
because you want something is enough reason for me to avoid it."   
She squeezed the trigger.   
Genma screamed and howled while holding his chest. Ranko stepped   
back while examining her pistol. "I forgot. This is really an armor   
piercing weapon, good for blowing apart brick walls or light armored   
vehicles. Speed of the projectile is in excess of three thousand yards   
per second at the muzzle. But in spite of all of the theories about   
velocity and hydrostatic shock the simple fact of the matter is that the   
needles mostly drill right through a human body without discernible   
result. Oh well..."   
She grabbed Genma and pulled out her knife again.   
Kasumi whimpered, terrified.   
Ranko saw her and apologized, still holding the knife at the ready.   
"I'm sorry, Kasumi. But this malformed lump of diseased humanity has got   
to go. More people will die if I don't, maybe people that you care   
about. He is evil and must be destroyed. But I can see that you wouldn't   
want to see it done, or have the mess on your floor." She grabbed the   
old man in a one-handed grip and hauled him up over her shoulder,   
heading for the door.   
Genma took the opportunity to stab an ampule into her side. She   
dropped him and staggered back, holding the site as the drug worked it's   
way into her system. In spite of Genma's expectations Ranko managed to   
throw her knife and staple his leg through the cloth of his gi to the   
wooden wall behind him.   
The edge of the blade resting uncomfortably near his crotch.   
Ranko crumpled.   
Nabiki's hair had never stood on end in her life. It was now. Kasumi   
had almost fainted and appeared ready to do so at any time. Serena kept   
shaking her head. To say that they'd been unprepared for the abrupt and   
brutal violence would be an award winning understatement. They looked   
ready to flee.   
Soun's hair was brushing cobwebs from off the ceiling and had turned   
white from root to tip. Akane had thankfully been away while all this   
had happened. There'd have been no telling what she would have done,   
only that she would have gotten involved.   
Nabiki chose to pierce the veil of unreality that hung over the   
room, addressing her father in a too-lighthearted tone. "Daddy? Do you   
*really* expect that we'll all live through an attempt to make Ranma   
marry Akane?"   
"DADDY!?!!" Serena squealed. "Have you *really* been arming the   
communists in China? How *could* you? I thought you said you'd taken   
Akane's cooking to *dispose* of it! Not bomb civilians!"   
"Oh my. How do you suppose Ranma managed to fix all his scars?"   
Kasumi was focusing in on the only aspect she could handle.   
Genma reached down and pried the knife from the wall, meaning he was   
now free to come down off tiptoe as he no longer needed to worry about   
shredding his anatomy. With a self-congratulating smirk he interrupted   
the girls, who weren't going to get a reaction from their father soon   
anyway. Soun had frozen completely.   
"Well, I'll have to admit, I hadn't expected the boy to be so upset.   
It looks like I won't be able to use him as I'd planned."   
"Planned?" Chorused the three girls.   
Genma began stripping the holsters, battle webbing, boots and   
clothes off of Ranko. "Yes, with his contacts among the freedom fighters   
in China it would have been simple to sell them out to the government.   
The boy wouldn't even have known what he was doing. I had all the   
necessary electronics implanted in Akane when she was getting that math   
neuralware she wanted. But the plan is not going to work if the boy just   
wants to kill us."   
"He was after you." Nabiki corrected, huddling fearfully with her   
sisters. Thinking on just how fully it had probably been justified. She   
made sure the tracking pointer in her brooch kept Genma painted for the   
hidden camera to target. She knew now she'd made the right decision. The   
Anti-Yakuza taskforce would be getting its money worth. She NEVER wanted   
to be even remotely like this man before her!   
Genma ignored her, going to dial a number. It wasn't long before   
three dark suited men arrived. Two carried out the redhead's nude form   
and a third spoke for a moment with Genma, handing him a small package   
of something.   
"What did you do?" Serena choked out.   
Seeing that the men were gone Genma opened the package and began   
counting his money. "What do you think?" He scorned. "The government's   
pretty hard on whore pits when they find them, but we still run a few. I   
should think that after about a year of `entertaining' and being strung   
out on all the little persuasive agents they use to keep them tractable   
he ought to be broken in enough to do as I say. And if not, well, then   
his life is very heavily insured."   
Three girls couldn't all crowd into the bathroom at once. Some had   
to elect fainting *before* they got sick. None of them were still in the   
house the next morning. 

*** 

Soun's hair was still standing completely on end.   
Kasumi threw up right at Genma's feet. Clutching her stomach, she   
scrambled, half-falling, to the bathroom. Sounds of retching could   
already be heard from upstairs. Nabiki had managed to run all the way to   
the bathroom without removing her headset, Serena (who had been tapping   
that signal for years) couldn't wait that long.   
Genma lowered the pendant. "Hmm, that's not what I had in mind. I   
wonder why it didn't work out?" He scratched his cheek. Maybe the   
wishing pendant had rules that weren't in the instructions?   
Oh, well. He could figure them out, he was sure.   
Raising the talisman up high once again he tried. "I wish that Ranma   
was more like me (so he wouldn't mind my line of work) and had not left   
us!" 

*** 

Ranma thrust his fist up into the air, screaming. "YES!! Blood   
Feud!!! Akane Tendo, you are an enemy to myself and my family clan. I   
swear by all my ancestors that you shall no longer pollute the land of   
the living with your vile presence! No force on this earth, nor power   
beneath it, can save your life!!! And I shall accept no plea from mortal   
being to spare it! You are a viper, a crawling, evil thing whose   
putresence befouls. And I shall laugh aloud as I destroy you!!!!"   
Lightning struck his upraised fist and illuminated his arms as he   
screamed in rage.   
"Akane Tendo, Prepare to DIE!!!"   
There were no words to express the horror creeping along Akane's   
spine at this announcement. It was like a river of ice suddenly jumped   
its banks to overflow the tiny campfire of her rage. Hesitantly, not   
having much practice, she ran up to him, venturing an apology.   
"Please Ranma."   
He backhanded her across the face with a spiked gauntlet, sending   
her flying. He tossed the glove at her feet as she sat up, blood   
streaming from her ruined face. "You have until ten today. After that I   
shall come for you. Any who will stand in my way shall die with you. Set   
your affairs in order."   
"Ranma! You can't DO THAT TO AKANE!!!!" Ryoga came screaming from   
around the yard. Ranma blocked the punch and thrust a blazing chi fist   
through the lost boy's chest, his fingers emerging from the other side   
accompanied by ribs and gore.   
He tossed the corpse at Akane's feet.   
"Until ten."   
He stalked out completely ignoring walls and doors, blasting through   
either one with impunity. 

Soun was lost in a world of horror, for once not even able to cry.   
They had always counted on *Ranma* to see them through things like this,   
and the corpse of his daughter's other defender lay still at her feet.   
At least the lost boy had died a man. But what of the rest of them?   
Ranma had sent out word himself of his pledge and his oath, stating   
clearly in it that whoever came to the aid of the Tendo girl had earned   
his undying wrath and would leave the world with her.   
Most of them had not believed it. They thought Ranma was under a   
spell or something. The thought that he'd actually snapped...   
It was unthinkable.   
So the crowd had gathered, hoping to save Ranma from doing what they   
all thought they knew he would regret later.   
Soun had seen the boy's face. He *knew* that Ranma wouldn't regret   
it later. He'd kill her a hundred times if he had the power, then a   
hundred times again and not be satisfied. Akane had finally pushed him   
beyond his insanely high levels of tolerance.   
His daughter had created a man who lived to kill her. 

Nabiki sat on the monorail looking out the window in a black   
despair.   
She'd warned those she could, and when that failed she'd pulled   
every string she had. Police were there around the house, a SWAT team   
was on standby. There were reporters on the odd chance some publicity   
would slow him down.   
She'd called in every favor she had and not one bit of it was going   
to make the slightest difference. And the pitiful thing about it was   
that she'd seen, and watched, as her sister had earned this.   
If ever there was a woman who deserved death from Ranma it was   
Akane. And Nabiki hadn't made a single bit of it better. If anything   
she'd made things worse.   
Nabiki gave a heavy sigh as the `rail passed out of the city.   
Not wanting to be any kind of relative of Genma Saotome, in-laws   
especially, was one thing. Taking that out on Ranma and assuming the   
meek, will-not-hit-girls, easily manipulated martial artist had an   
infinite battery for social embarrassment and pain...   
...well, she supposed you could say that it had been a fatal error. 

Kasumi stayed in her room. She'd gone to get Dr. Tofu, and he'd   
come, but was not capable of dealing with what was about to happen.   
Serena was not to be found anywhere.   
Akane cried bitterly and squeezed her eyes shut as the shouts and   
screams began outside the house. It began raining bodies precisely at   
ten. 

*** 

Genma lowered the talisman again, looking at it. "That can't be   
right. Here let me try again."   
"OH, NO YOU DON'T!!!" Soun's demon head practically swallowed him   
whole. "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU DESTROY MY FAMILY!!!" Soun Tendo   
grabbed at the chain as the bearded man scurried away.   
"AAAAaaaaagghhh!! Calm DOWN, Tendo! It's not like I'm *trying* to   
wish for some terrible tragedy! We need Ranma back, don't we?!"   
Both men stopped their struggling as the amulet still held in his   
hands began twittering with insane giggling.   
Both began seriously to wonder if amulets could distinguish phrases   
like `it's not' or would it merely start with `I'm trying'? 

Ranko caught her returning shield. The Musk had fallen, and good   
riddance.   
The last of Mandarin's minions had been very helpful in identifying   
which pools had been cursed by Mandarin's foes. So they had released   
him, according to their word.   
The minion had gone straight to the Musk, calling upon their loyalty   
to Mandarin to launch an attack while the amazons were still debating   
what to do.   
They'd stopped the assault with a battery of water cannons.   
Ranko looked down on the field below her, filled with minks,   
rabbits, otters and steppe ponies. The only hot springs in the area   
would now be under heavy guard, and it was the Mandarin himself who'd   
closed off the valley of Jusenkyo, subject to a key that now hung around   
Cologne's neck.   
Shampoo landed to congratulate her soon-to-be-husband on his   
forethought on preparing the water cannons even on the eve of their   
wedding when he vanished from before her eyes. 

When Ranko appeared in the Tendo living room, Soun and Genma saw her   
and went completely berserk. Between the demon head, surprise, and Genma   
flinging bags of white power into her face when she was trying to   
breathe Ranko dropped her guard long enough for them to beat her   
senseless.   
The sisters came in while the white powder was still drifting out of   
the air. Serena and Akane rushed in, eyes wide, to stop at the door   
staring, while Nabiki and Kasumi came in, both quite sick.   
"Now, girls. We've got this all figured out." Genma stood tall and   
adjusted his glasses, straddling the body. "Your father and I can take   
care of this."   
Seeing their father, who looked terrified enough to be dangerous,   
they couldn't help but wonder. Serena followed her father's terrified   
stare. "Hey! Where'd Ranma get both his arms back? And where're the   
scars? Hey! Cool Outfit! Did he go full sesh at the mall or something?"   
Akane started to enter the room, but staggered back out, holding her   
nose. All the girls seemed to suddenly become aware that it was raining   
drugs in there, and that Genma still held empty plastic bags in both   
hands.   
Noting Ranko's altered appearance, Nabiki and her elder sister   
shared a look. Kasumi went to get a mop bucket, while Nabiki fingered   
her brooch. Her hidden camera began to discretely pan over the room,   
before focusing in on Genma.   
She was almost waiting for him to make that phone call.   
Genma had been spending this whole while thinking fruitlessly.   
The Master hopped in the window. "What's the matter, boys? Hey! What   
do you mean having a party like this without me!" He sniffed at the air.   
"Wow! Genma, this must be your month's budget! What are we celebrating?" 

Soun's hair was still standing so much on end that it swept the   
ceiling. He pointed at Ranko, stammering. "That... that... he tried to   
kill..."   
"Hmm, still upset is he?" Happosai hopped over and exclaimed in glee   
when he discovered Ranko's changes. "Whee!!! Whoopee!! Lookit this! Why,   
he's gotten so cute this way! We may have to keep him like this for a   
little while. I may need some occasional nuzzling to forgive him what   
he's done to me."   
Kasumi returned with a mop and a wet cloth tied around her face, and   
another over her hair. She entered the room and began to clean up the   
mess she'd made earlier.   
"B... but he..." Soun stammered.   
Happosai had an annoyed glance. "I heard yah the first time. So he's   
still upset, is he? No problem! I've still got some herbs I brought with   
me long ago from China. It shouldn't be the work of a minute to make the   
kid forget the last few weeks."   
Soun's hair lost some of its terror charge and came down about   
halfway, puddling about his shoulders instead of straight up or down. He   
suddenly found hope. "That's right! When Ranma comes to if he'll be   
unable to remember his fight with us, or even why he left us, everything   
will be back to normal and our future will be secured!"   
Nabiki held her breath long enough to take two steps into the room   
and kick one, small object across the wood floor into the puddle Kasumi   
was cleaning. The eldest Tendo girl calmly swept the item into her   
bucket with the same sweep she'd been using to clean the rest of the   
mess.   
Serena grew cross. "DAD! Do you want to explain this `business' you   
had going with your friend Genma? And why our living room is floating   
with drugs? Eeep!" She held her nose and hurried to stand by an open   
window.   
Nabiki turned on the fire sprinklers to prevent a drug overdose from   
killing half her family. Then watched as the nasty stuff began to drain   
away.   
Woozily, Akane left and sought the garden and fresh air.   
"Excuse me." Kasumi got up to leave the room, clothes wet and the   
puddle of her mess gone. "I think that I'd better visit the bathroom."   
"I'll go help you, sis." Nabiki got up and followed after her elder   
sister, Serena screaming at both their elders behind them. Nabiki   
provided assistance as Kasumi was messily sick in the bathroom. Then   
both washed thoroughly, themselves and their clothes.   
Later, in Kasumi's bedroom with the door safely shut behind them,   
Nabiki asked. "Little sis has got spunk, but she's not going to make Mr.   
Saotome change his ways, and it looks like daddy's in this alot more   
than I suspected. So what do we do?"   
Kasumi sat down on the edge of her bed, looking a little pale. "I'd   
like to think that father wouldn't go along with it." She sighed. "But   
after seeing him I don't know that I can trust him not to."   
Nabiki bit her lip as her eldest sister bent over in pain that the   
frequent vomiting had aggravated in her tummy. "Yeah. Mr. Saotome's rich   
and daddy *really* wants to get ahold of his friend's wealth." Seeing   
her sister's pain she offered. "Look, Kasumi. A doctor really isn't that   
much. I'm sure I can con the money out of..."   
"Please don't, Nabiki. I don't want to owe Mr. Saotome any more than   
our family already does."   
Thinking about the man downstairs who had drugged his son, maybe   
poisoned his ex-wife, smuggled, stolen and actually thrown his own   
offspring into a cage of lions to be mauled and *then* condemned him as   
a cripple for half his life, she couldn't find the heart to disagree. 

Serena stormed out the back porch and left the yard by the side gate   
in a huff. As she passed under her window her cat, Luna, leapt down from   
the ledge onto her shoulder.   
"What's the matter, Serena?"   
"Oh, I just found out my father is a lying criminal, that's all."   
Serena felt like crying.   
"I thought he was merely coerced by that houseguest of his?"   
Serena sniffed, then leaned against a wall. "Houseguests leave,   
Luna." Tears appeared ready to leap from her eyes, and she puddled   
herself at the base of the wall in misery. "He's stayed with us   
*forever* and now I find that my father's willing to sell banned weapons   
to the commies!" She wailed.   
"Keep it down, Serena." The cat whispered in concern, looking around   
fearfully. "We don't want that kind of secret to get out. It might draw   
attention that would hamper our own activities."   
Serena stared for a moment in shock, then moved decisively. "C'mon,   
Luna! To the Moon Cave!"   
The girl rushed over to a photo booth that no one ever seemed to   
use, twisted a ridiculously obvious secret button, and both girl and cat   
reached behind themselves to slide down poles that had appeared out of a   
false wall...   
...To appear in full costume at the base of the poles. Serena was   
wearing a full, flowing cape and a cute little utility belt over her   
while sailor fuku. Both girl and cat were masked with yellow moon   
crescents upon their foreheads.   
Cool and decisive, Moon Girl strode into the top secret Moon Cave,   
where her ever faithful nerd and sidekick waited.   
"Melvin, is the Moonmobile ready?" The blond-haired girl asked.   
"Just as you ordered ma'am." The grease covered nerd saluted her   
with a wrench. "I took out the Hearts of Longing machinegun loads and   
replaced it with a mix of Silvery Moon Stars and high-explosive   
incendiary."   
Moon Girl put her hands on petite hips. "MELVIN! You know how I hate   
that stupid normal-bullet stuff!"   
Luna was already in her spot in the pink and white Moonmobile.   
"C'mon, Moon Girl! Our enemies are *waiting!*"   
Moon Girl landed in the driver's seat with a bounce, then revved the   
engine. "First we take on Fury. Then we go after Secula. Then we cruise   
by Graviton Asylum to see if any of our *old* enemies escaped recently.   
And if *that* doesn't cool me down we can see if I've got the guts to   
arrest my own father."   
Serena wiped a tear away from under her Moon Mask and they sped off,   
Luna wisely saying nothing. 

Ranko woke to a splitting head and Kasumi sitting by her bedside   
looking ill.   
Ranko sat up, her mind cataloging scenery and facts and filling in   
blanks on technology, status, Kasumi's illness and appearance, and where   
the heck was she anyway? She held her head, which felt like someone had   
been making mince meat out of it.   
"Morning Kasumi. What's up?"   
The eldest Tendo frowned slightly. What wasn't? It was she who had   
been given the job of making Ranma comfortable after... after what their   
fathers had done. When she'd undressed him to find traditional girl's   
underclothing... then she'd splashed him with hot water...   
Kasumi wasn't quite ready to let her family know what Ranma now   
looked like when he was male, which is why he'd woken up in girl form.   
She smiled wanly. "We all have school today, Ranma."   
Every kind of alarm and warning was going off in Ranko's mind. She   
looked askance at the wane girl.   
"Are you alright, Kasumi?"   
The eldest Tendo found the question startling, but did nothing about   
it. "You had a head injury, Ranma. That's all. Breakfast is downstairs.   
Seeing as how you aren't hurt anymore, I doubt the school would let you   
continue to break dress code, so I got you a uniform and put it in the   
closet. We'll all be ready to go in about half an hour, so you can take   
your time getting ready."   
She got up and left the room.   
Ranko hopped out of bed, then nearly fell back down. Someone had   
made a *really* botched attempt to chemically alter her mind. She sat   
down for a moment and set her healing abilities in to work on it. Slow   
and gentle was the way. It felt like she'd get everything back in a week   
or so. Probably all in a rush, too.   
Come to think of it, probing a little deeper she could sense several   
*excellent* mind-wipes done on her. The extent of the loss was   
unguessable, but she felt like she was missing alot.   
Ranko sighed. Kasumi'd been treating her like she *knew* about the   
mind-wipe. But for the moment she had no other data to go on. She   
literally could *not* remember this reality at all. Sparing a glance for   
the floating chair though, she realized that it was at least one that   
operated on a comfortable tech level.   
Opening the closet she found a girl's school uniform. Sighing, she   
slipped it on. 

"Do you think Serena's alright?" Kasumi asked of her younger sister   
down in the kitchen. "She didn't come home last night."   
Nabiki chewed, considering. "Probably not a problem, sis. She's   
always sleeping over with her friends anyway. If she's not home later we   
can call Mina or Amy's house, and if she's not there she'll be at Rae or   
Lita's." She took another bite. "I wish *I* had friends like that. I   
wouldn't have minded skipping out on Mr. Saotome's scheme concerning   
Ranma."   
Kasumi looked into her cup and asked something that had been   
worrying her. "Nabiki. Do you think... when Ranma left us... he'd been   
talking about finding another girlfriend, and he'd changed... Could he   
have gotten a one during the week he's been away?"   
Nabiki munched. "You worried that maybe he'll be cheating on a   
relationship he doesn't remember? I wish I could say I didn't think so,   
sis. But he was a nice guy even when he was all scarred up. And he had   
to have gotten fixed up somehow, that implies connections, even better   
than the ones Mr. Saotome's got. I just hope Dad isn't buying us a whole   
load of trouble when some new girlfriend show up."   
Ranko hopped down the stairs from where she'd been listening. 

Akane gloated openly, trying not to be too obvious about how   
satisfied and smug she was feeling about having Ranma back, even if the   
jerk insisted on staying a girl.   
Ranko was trying hard to puzzle out why Serena, Kasumi and Nabiki   
all had on different school uniforms than herself and Akane. Finally she   
decided that it was safe enough to ask.   
"Excuse me, but why aren't we dressed all the same?"   
Nabiki and Kasumi shared a look, while Serena didn't, just stating   
it right out, with a glare at Akane, her next-oldest sibling.   
"It's because we don't all go to the same school. We three go to an   
all girl's school, while you and maggot-face go to Furinkan High. This   
next intersection is where we split."   
Ranko found herself wishing she'd *really* spent more than ten   
minutes trying to break the security codes on Nabiki's console. It   
hadn't seemed worth it at the time, but things were looking more   
critical than she'd suspected.   
"I'll go with you." She volunteered.   
Akane stopped swinging at Serena for the maggot-face jibe. "You   
*can't* you idiot! You turn into a guy half the time! You're not dressed   
to go to Graviton! Besides, why do you think I'm going to Furinkan in   
the first place? Our parents insisted that I spend time with you, that's   
why! Anyway, I'd much rather spend time with my sisters than with   
*you!*"   
Serena stuck out her tongue. "You're not going to Graviton High   
because your grades are lousy, *that's* why! Don't blame Ranma. It's not   
*his* fault you couldn't pass the entrance exams."   
"Grrrr!!!! Come *back* here, you ponytail-brain!" Akane took off,   
swinging her bookbag and seriously trying to maim her younger sister.   
The two oldest girls looked apologetically at Ranko, only to find that   
she'd somehow changed into a regulation Graviton uniform in the seconds   
they'd not been looking.   
She cocked her head happily, then took off. "C'mon! `Rena's given us   
a *great* distraction, and I'm not sure that it wasn't on purpose." She   
ran off, already calculating how best to return the favor.   
"But your records!?" Nabiki called, trying to run after and   
discovering that she wasn't good at it. Kasumi said nothing, merely   
shared worried looks with Nabiki while keeping pace alongside her.   
Serena rejoined them only a block or so away, only slightly   
disheveled and thoroughly happy with herself.   
"I got maggot-face to her school. And right now she's probably   
tearing up the walls looking for me." The blond singsonged gleefully by   
way of announcement. She cracked a cheery smile complete with laughing   
blue twinkling eyes. "So it'll be *hours* before she runs outta `Rage'   
mode and notices you aren't there."   
Ranko laughed and gave Serena a hug. "Thanks, `Rena. I owe you one." 

"Hey! Only *boys* get to call me `Rena!"   
"And only if they're cute." Nabiki added, finally joining them.   
"Why did you want to go with us?" Kasumi inquired, also joining them   
and wanting to settle one of her worries.   
Ranko spun in place, but stopped when hit by the question. She   
opened her mouth and closed it, then set off walking, mumbling   
something.   
"What was that?" Nabiki pressed.   
"Hey! Let her alone! Maybe she just doesn't want to talk about it   
right now."   
To herself, Serena flipped on her Moon Communicator and   
subvocalized. "Hey, Luna? We got a major problem here. Ranma's been   
mumbling about how being killed by Akane isn't a good way to start the   
day, and that he'd at least like to live past lunch. I think this plan   
of our dads' is going to bust *majorly* wide open and I'd rather not   
have Ranma running amuck when that happens, okay?"   
Luna replied something through the subdermal receiver.   
"Um, actually, you're totally right." Serena agreed. "After what we   
saw last night I think I *could* live with him capping his dad. Just so   
long as he stay's paws-off *my* father. Okay? I'm still not sure he'd   
deserve that."   


To Be Continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

(pulling down eyelid) Nyah! 

Yup, it's dark. Don't bug me. It came out this way and there wasn't   
anything in the whole world that I could do to change it. 

Remember Ranma once being confused about Serena and the Sailor   
Scouts? Well, as I've hinted strongly (ahem, read: stated outright - no,   
shush! they'll hear you!) our ever-lovable Senshi are not always   
moon-crystal-weilding youma stompers.   
And Ranma knows that. 

Some Cast Members: 

Secula - The world's only atheist vampire. Has the interesting quirk   
that *any* symbol holy to any religion is anathema to him. Moon Girl   
once had a fight with him where she was losing and began quoting   
scripture to the effect of `I have all things as a witness to me that   
there is a God.'   
She then proceeded to present a turnip to him forcefully and he ran   
away. Hasn't been much of a threat since. 

Serena - Has anyone actually picked up on the fact that this girl is   
considerably smarter than canon? 

Akane - Worse than canon. Yes, I'll admit it. However, if you'll   
follow my reasoning, the Ranma she's been paired with wasn't quite the   
stud-muffin she denied ever loving in the anime or the manga. 

Nabiki - If you can't figure out some of her changes why do I   
bother? She's smarter, kinder, closer to Kasumi and fooled by Serena's   
ditz act. 

Genma - Yes, not much cute lil' panda left is there? Yes, he is   
mean, lowly and despicable, dirty, rotten and scumlike, rather than   
merely selfish and self-serving. But I remember promising someone that   
I'll come up with another universe where he isn't that much of a bad   
guy.   
Casting him as a good one doesn't sit well with me. I find little to   
no humor in this guy who reminds me *so* strongly of my own pop. 

It's my fic, my grudge. Don't read it if you don't like it. But you   
really ought to know what an excellent therapy this is. 

And, on a more practical note, every story needs a bad guy.   
Takahashi makes use of Genma herself in that role, I'm just exaberrating   
the evil a bit because I've got a more noble Ranma.   
Well, and a more powerful one. 

As for making this dark, George Lucas once said regarding Empire   
Strikes Back "You don't have a happy, upbeat middle of a play. You put   
your characters in this situation where they can't possibly get out, and   
then in the third act they get out." 

Besides (smirk) you are getting *exactly* what you are paying for! 


	16. 16

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Sixteen   
The Sword of Kasumi 

by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber   


Disclaimer:   
Um, like don't blame me, okay? I only work here. 

************************************************   
Somewhen, Somewhere 

"Captain's Log, Stardate Unknown. A peculiar energy disturbance has   
swept through the area, leaving certain changes in it's wake. The dates   
in our computer and history logs are no longer the ones that I remember,   
even if I could be certain of what I remember, as I seem to have two,   
complete sets of memory regarding many incidents in question. In   
addition, our history seems to have altered. The Enterprise now carries   
added weaponry I'd previously recalled as Romulan and Klingon, along   
with an upgrade to many of our existing systems. Reviewing past logs has   
confirmed much of what I'd believed to be accurate, it's the changes   
that disturb me. One part of me recalls a drawn out war against the   
Klingons, while another knows of nothing of the kind. If I feel these   
changes begin to interfere in my duty in any way, I will immediately   
consult with Bones and Spock. I would have done this before, except part   
of me seems unusually disturbed by seeing Spock regularly lose to Bones   
at chess. Log out." 

*****   
Universe C 

"Uh, Ranma, why don't you go on ahead? My sisters and I have some   
things we've got to discuss."   
"Sure Nabiki. See you at school."   
"Sure Ranma."   
Ranko ran off to school.   
Serena twirled. "So Moneybelts, what was so important you had to   
send Ranma away?"   
Kasumi stepped forward. "I think I know what she was going to ask,   
Serena. We were wondering if perhaps we could impose on one of your   
friends to move in with them for a while. And don't call her Moneybelts.   
It's not very nice."   
Serena rolled her eyes and poked Nabiki's middle. There was a   
distinctive rustle of cash. "Why not? She's always wearing one."   
"Because it isn't very nice, and if she's wearing one then other   
people shouldn't be allowed to know."   
For the millionth time Nabiki wished she could understand her   
youngest sister. Every time she pegged her for a fool Serena would go   
and do something surprising, and every time she thought there might be a   
brain in between those yellow locks then a rash of *extremely* ditzy   
actions would chase that thought somewhere off into the next universe.   
Nabiki could only conclude that her sister was very weird.   
She sighed.   
"Serena, this is important. Look, I wear the money belt to keep our   
fathers away from our stash. Kasumi does the same thing by putting hers   
in the bottom of the dirty diaper pail when she babysits next door every   
evening. It keeps our fathers out of our savings, which is more than any   
bank could do."   
"So pointing out that she wears one is not helping. What if Happosai   
were to want drinking money? Where would he go if he were to have   
overheard you talking about this?"   
Serena's face fell into an exaggerated, and entirely believable,   
mask of sorrow. She hung her head. "I'm sorry."   
"So could we crash at one of your friends' places?"   
Her head snapped up. "What, tonight?!?" Serena bit her lip. Not   
tonight. It *couldn't* be tonight. She was going out with Dawn's Avatar   
and the Star of Twilight (aka, Rae and Mina respectively) to go trounce   
some crime lords over in the west side of town. There was a even   
spider-based cyborg that looked fit to provide *hours* of   
villain-stomping, face-booting fun. Liquid Metal (aka Amy, who'd been   
too busy to hang out with them of late) might even be showing. She   
*couldn't* miss out on it!   
And if her sisters found out they'd soon be sleeping in the Moon   
Cave, bunking with Melvin. And neither one of them was careful enough to   
keep their fathers out of her hideaway once *that* happened.   
"Would your friends not like that?" Kasumi asked fearfully.   
"Sis, we have *gotta* get away somehow. There's no way we can openly   
go against Mr. Saotome's schemes if we're still living there. And I   
don't fancy myself as his kind of 'entertainer'. Do you think a little   
money could convince one of them? We *really* need a place. Even enough   
to pay a low rent."   
Serena smiled, they were *so* clueless. "No, I'm sure it will be   
fine."   
Both older sisters felt immense relief. Kasumi smiled. "Thank you,   
I'm sure you know which friend of yours would be best for this. If you   
could ask her we would both appreciate it. We can begin moving our   
things after dinner tonight, when father and Mr. Saotome leave to go   
bar-hopping."   
"Look, if there's anything you need of me..." Nabiki left the offer   
dangling.   
Serena filed the offer away for future reference. "Nah, I'm sure it   
will be cool. I'll ask Lita first. There's alot of empty room up in   
stately Storm Manor."   
"We would appreciate it." Kasumi nodded, then her eyes flew wide and   
her jaw hit the pavement.   
Nabiki could feel the flesh creeping along her spine. "Lita lives up   
there? Look, we wouldn't want to impose. I mean, I'm sure her boss   
wouldn't want two relatives of her friend showing up, would she?"   
Serena had already determined that the time for *certain* secrets   
was ending. "It's not a big deal." She singsonged. "Besides, she doesn't   
*have* a boss, and I'm sure it will be cool for you to stay there."   
"Waitaminute," Nabiki tried to collect herself.   
"What is Lita's last name?" Kasumi asked suspiciously, realizing   
that after all this time she still didn't know.   
"Storm. What's the big deal?"   
"Lita Storm?"   
"Yeah."   
"She wouldn't happen to be any relative of the owner of Storm   
Industries, would she? I mean, if she lives there..."   
Serena summoned mock anger to deal with this 'stupidity'. She   
clenched fists and stuck her face toward her sister. "Nabiki! How   
clueless can you get! Lita *is* the owner of Storm industries! She's   
been an orphan since she was, like, five years old and has been running   
the company since before puberty!"   
With horrible clarity Nabiki could recall calling up that number and   
browbeating Lita when Serena had been gone for long periods and gotten   
them worried. It had always stuck her as odd how calm the girl remained   
through it.   
Serena shrugged one shoulder, now totally composed. "Anyway, I'll   
ask her to have Securitech send a van over to pick up all our stuff.   
They're a subsidiary of Storm. Hey! Maybe you could even join us on our   
next Hawaii beach trip! That would be *so* cool! We can, like, talk that   
over once the junk gets moved. Anyway, I'll be sleeping over at Amy's   
tonight."   
Excellent. Now both sisters were too dazed to be aware that they had   
already accepted they weren't going to be upsetting her schedule of   
disappearances. Cool!   
Picking a flower from a nearby bush, Serena laid it on Nabiki's   
tongue for a decoration and skipped off for school, humming cheerfully.   
Bees soon began to investigate the flower.   
About a minute later Kasumi summoned the resources to faint. 

Ranko had long ago reached the school gates. She'd found another   
girl waiting there, and the moment Ranko stepped into sight the girl's   
undivided attention zeroed in upon her.   
"I've been waiting for you, A-ko."   
A-ko? Probably a nickname, she'd had worse. Ranko replied without   
twitching a hair.   
"Waiting for me? How very kind of you." She gave a small bow to the   
other girl. "Shall we go in to school now?"   
A crack appeared in the other girl's hostility. Not a thawing, but   
more of a 'I can't believe I got that response from you' sort of crack.   
The other girl covered it instantly.   
"No, I'm afraid there was nothing friendly about it. You and I have   
some very old business we have to discuss."   
Ranko gave a weary sigh, drooping her arms and shoulders. "No, wait.   
Let me guess. We knew each other in school a very, very long time ago   
and I upset you. You gave me a formal challenge and claim I never showed   
up, soiling your honor forever and leaving a lasting scar that has never   
healed. Am I right?"   
The young lady was eagerly astonished. "You mean you *do* remember!"   
She gloated, finding some satisfaction in that her memory had lived on.   
Ranko stuck a hand behind her head in embarrassment. "Ah, no,   
actually. I just picked that out of the air. It's the usual reason for   
people to attack me at the gates of a school, though... Well, this   
wouldn't apply in *your* case, but the other reason is to give me   
flowers and spout poetry. So that left the other one as a likely guess." 

The girl had facefaulted.   
Ranko bent down and lifted a lock of brown hair out of the other   
girl's face. "Would it be too much if I were to ask your name?"   
The girl came up shouting. "My name is B-ko and I'm challenging   
you!"   
Ranko blinked. "Well, okay. Would you like to set the time and   
victory conditions?"   
B-ko confidently crossed her arms. "Here and now, with victory being   
decided when you give C-ko back to be *my* friend and *you* beg for   
mercy."   
Ranko also crossed her arms. "Nope."   
The brown-haired girl facefaulted again. When she arose stuttering   
in rage Ranko lifted a finger, stopping her. "In the first place I never   
barter away a friendship with someone (even if I have no idea who they   
are) based on something as stupid as a fight. And *secondly* your   
victory conditions only provide for a win for you. They never even say   
what I have to get *you* to do to acknowledge defeat."   
"Oh, I don't think I'll have to worry about that." B-ko replied   
confidently.   
An industrial loadlifter glided by and dropped off a suit of powered   
armor, one large enough to be a small mecha.   
Ranko sighed a visible little mushroom.   
"What do you want from me, B-ko?"   
"I want revenge from when you stole *my* friend away!" The older   
girl practically screamed.   
Ranko's head came up. "How about restitution instead? Revenge is a   
diet that only makes one hungrier, until you end up the main course in   
somebody *else's* feast. Wouldn't you rather I made it up to you   
instead?"   
B-ko blinked, then assumed a more casual stance. "Well, I wouldn't   
mind that. But, of course the only thing I want from you is to see you   
humiliated. That, and to have C-ko back, of course."   
Ranko wished she knew who or what a C-ko was. She got a feeling it   
could be important.   
"And what would be appropriately humiliating? For starters at   
least?" Ranko inquired patiently.   
B-ko had never even thought of that. She blinked. "Oh, well, I guess   
having you on your knees begging me to spare your life would be a good   
start."   
Ranko squeezed her eyes shut. Why did she always get the weird ones?   
Still it was only pride...   
"Fine." She said. "You win three fights and I'll do that. But now I   
get *my* terms. If and when you lose I get to...." She blinked   
thoughtfully. "Um, what could you have that I would want?"   
B-ko stood there, having no idea herself.   
There was an agonizing moment of silence.   
"Okaaaay." Ranko concluded. "If I win then you have to be my friend   
for a day. And none of that sneaking or backbiting stuff, you have to at   
least *treat* me as if we were honestly close friends, okay?"   
B-ko opened her mouth to object but Ranko cut her off. "And do you   
have anything *else* in mind? I won't allow you to shoot down one idea   
unless you propose another."   
B-ko closed her mouth. Getting pouty, she looked away. "That seems a   
little extreme."   
Ranko facefaulted.   
The redhead came up shouting. "And what *I* have to do ISN'T?!!"   
The older girl remained unruffled. "Yes, but that only comes into   
play after I've beaten you *three* times. While your condition takes   
effect after the first. It's not fair."   
Ranko growled. "Okay. Propose something that *would* be fair."   
B-ko blinked a few times, not used to this style of debate. "Oh,   
well I suppose...." She snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Winner gets   
to keep the loser, getting them to do whatever she says. In your case   
you would be my humble and appropriately obedient servant, and in mine,   
well, I guess that I could be your friend."   
When it became obvious that the other girl wasn't going to have any   
immediate improvements on that idea Ranko amended. "No immoral actions,   
nothing you couldn't get a perfectly ordinary friend or servant to do,   
but sure. Duration lasts only eight hours a day and only until the next   
fight. Deal?"   
"Becoming a permanent arrangement upon the third victory. Deal."   
B-ko waved her powersuited friend forward. "Mina, kill."   
The powersuit took one, massive step forward and stopped. Ranko   
waltzed around it and breezed past B-ko, handing her a torn-out power   
cable. "Here you go. See you in school! Let's go for lunch together   
afterward, okay?"   
The brown-haired B-ko stared unbelievingly at the cable for several   
seconds, then clamped her fist around it and growled.   
About a minute after the scene of battle had cleared three Tendo   
girls came running in to school, followed a moment later by a redheaded   
girl who really *was* named A-ko, towing her best friend C-ko along to   
class. 

That evening Ranma discovered the changes to his male form, and went   
about town to get away from the madhouse back at the Tendo place of   
Akane screaming at her three sisters about how stupid they were. And all   
three sisters pleading with Akane to give up her fetish with cyberware   
and hyper-strength boosters and come with them.   
While he was out enjoying the city he was observed by a shadowy   
figure, who fell back out of sight and reported on his radio.   
"Yah, it's him alright. He's blond, muscular, and somehow no longer   
Japanese. But there's no mistaking a Saotome, especially this one. You   
can inform the men, and send out a call to a certain fleet admiral who I   
know will be interested." 

The second morning was strained at the Tendo house, as all the   
daughters but Akane were missing, and Kasumi had left a note saying that   
they no longer wished to remain while Mr. Saotome was their father's   
guest.   
Akane had started blaming Ranma (back in girl form), Genma had kept   
cutting off the retreats, and the resultant discussion had left half of   
the house in ruins.   
Ranko had skipped out on the following waterworks and gone off to   
beat B-ko's latest mecha invention, spending the rest of the day after   
school with her newly acquired (albeit supremely reluctant) friend.   
B-ko was getting quite upset by the defeats. But Ranko's charm was   
having a mitigating effect. Or at least she was making it easy to lose   
with good grace, something that the elder girl might eventually take   
advantage of.   
Back at the house, a woman entered calmly into the wreckage,   
trailing a small team of dark suited men behind her. She seemed to   
appraise everything in a few cool glances, pausing only to note the   
drugs on the table with evident distaste.   
The bald man sputtered. "Doka-chan, what are *you* doing here?"   
The redhaired beauty regarded him without friendliness.   
"Well, Genma. I guess you could say I became curious when you began   
doing recent searches regarding the name of my son, whom you supposedly   
killed. Now I don't care much for you, but recalling your experience as   
a liar I began to wonder if my son ever really died. A little searching   
on my own uncovered recent bank records, travel logs, school reports,   
online files, indeed, all the trappings of a life being lived by a young   
man, including some rather substantial medical records regarding   
injuries one might receive being mauled by lions."   
Nodoka's eyes became, if it were possible, even more severe. "So,   
Genma. Where is my son?"   
Soun intervened, stepping between them and reverting to familiar   
speech habits. "What do you want with that cripple?"   
A sharp glance assured the man that he had just become her enemy for   
life, and that there was no idle threat to this, even for such as he.   
"So he does live." Nodoka confirmed to herself. "Very well, you will   
now turn him over or we shall see whether a few petty crime lords are   
capable of withstanding the undivided attention of the Masaki Ninja." 

*****   
Heaven's Outer Court In That Same Universe 

Shapely bronze fingers twisted the approach of the laser brush just   
slightly and crafted a steady, curvaceous line on the holodisplay's   
paint program.   
Mara materialized in a cloud of sulfurous stench, in mid-gloat.   
"Bite me, Urd!" The demoness presented her posterior and patted it.   
"This proves that my tools are better than yours! I got my man to cast a   
wish that will utterly destroy that man of your sister's."   
The white-tressed goddess lay down her high-tech instrument and gave   
an unruffled smile. "What makes you so sure, Mara? It's not as if you've   
won already." She waved her hand and a richly detailed hologram   
appeared, relaying pertinent information. The computer (sounding a bit   
like James Earl Jones) spoke. "System estimate that subject will find   
way to overcome current set of difficulties: 16.587%."   
Urd smirked and regarded the demoness with a half-lidded expression.   
"Are you so sure of everything that you want to start celebrating your   
success now?"   
The demoness pouted, grumbling. "Man, I liked you better when it was   
all spells and witchcraft. Why'd you have to modernize?"   
Urd appeared amused. "You know better, Mara. My realm is the past.   
Skuld is already back to wearing bearskins and using a twisted length of   
machine piping as a club. We all reflect our portfolios. This   
techno-society is so unstable it is already about to fall, and as such   
it's begun leaking into what I do. I can't help that any more than you   
can stop dressing like street trash."   
The demoness presented a fact sheet (slightly rumpled and showing   
sign of fast food stains) and pointed to it, pointedly ignoring the   
hologram. "I've got it right here. As a result of my servant's wish, the   
boy remembers *too* much. The boy recalls his training under Queen   
Beryl, gets twisted by that *other* thing my duplicate had done to him,   
and before he's able to stabilize he gets to remember a hundred assorted   
training atrocities like the Cat Fist, then gets washed under from the   
evil of his servitude with the Phantom. Pluto had locked *that* away   
from his mind for a reason. You've lost him, goddess. Get ready to pay   
up on our bet."   
Urd's lips neither scowled nor smiled but seemed to do both. "We   
haven't lost him yet, Mara. And Belldandy does *not* give up on such   
things."   
Demoness poked goddess in the sternum. "You'd better start   
memorizing lyrics, Urd. I'm going to hear the 'Itchy, Oochie, Coochie   
Song' from you pretty quick."   
Urd tossed an eyebrow skyward. "Just so long as you remember how to   
sing Handel's Messiah, Mara."   
The demoness shied at the reminder. "That ain't gunna happen. I'll   
be watching you for tricks."   
"Cheating's more *you're* style, Mara. And I remember no divine *or*   
infernal influence directly on the principals in the life of the   
subject. If I catch you at something like, say, going back in time to   
influence Genma over his thirty years of life prior to that wish, say.   
Then Father will have some words to say with you Himself on the   
Subject."   
Mara went all stammery and white for a second. In spite of her   
*knowing* that Urd had no proof that threat chilled. The Almighty was   
the only one excepted from the great doublet program. The backlash   
programming in the Yggdrassil system that kept demons and gods from   
slaughtering one another. If He thought her offense was bad enough (and   
now that she thought about it, she *had* crossed the line a few times)   
He could remove her from existence totally, and without remorse.   
Mara scowled. "Good luck trying, Urd."   
Then she disappeared in a foul smelling cloud. 

*****   
Meanwhile, In The Universe Next Door 

Nabiki huffed arrogantly. "Oh, get it *over* with, Saotome. There is   
no single thing that can solve all the problems *you've* managed to   
accumulate. You KNOW that whatever you wish for will just make your   
problems worse anyway. Why not just give it up?"   
Ranma looked downcast at the table. "Well, Kasumi?"   
"Ranma?"   
"Everyone else seems to have something to add, I just thought I'd   
give you an opportunity to throw in your bit as well, is all." Ranma's   
voice was bitter. Here he had something that could end his curse, and he   
couldn't get any help in figuring out how to do it.   
"Actually, yes, Ranma. I do." Kasumi looked down at her sewing. This   
was far too close to the spotlight for her to be comfortable. Her   
analysis was complete. Kasumi estimated an 85% chance of eliminating   
more than one problem. Maybe she could eliminate some of her own while   
she was at it.   
Everyone blinked a couple of times.   
"You know of a way to do this?" Ranma couldn't keep the eagerness   
out of his voice.   
"You'd have to turn the wish over to me to avoid potential   
conflicts, but yes." Deep down a tiny bit of worry developed. Did she   
want to do this? If she did, then would it be for the better? If she   
didn't, then did she want to watch all these unresolved issues and   
conflicts continue to fester like some infected wound?   
"Shampoo not sure about this."   
"Hey, Kasumi, what are you planning?"   
Akane sat back, stunned. KASUMI had an idea?   
"Sis, I think I need to talk to you." Nabiki began to sweat. She   
knew her eldest sister had a surface layer of obliviousness hiding many   
deeper layers. The concept of losing certain sources of income was   
horrifying.   
"Wishbringer, grant Kasumi the wish you would have granted the   
pigtailed girl." Ranma handed the sword over. If it had been anyone   
else, he would have hesitated, but this was KASUMI.   
Kasumi awkwardly took the blade in her hands. "Now then,   
Wishbringer. Ranma here has many problems that he has a lot of trouble   
dealing with. His father didn't do a very good job of raising him. He's   
engaged to a number of girls, but, of course, he can only marry one.   
He's often brash, egotistical, and self-centered."   
"HEY!" Ranma looked hurt.   
Kasumi continued. "Nabiki's trying to make a profit off the various   
situations has made things worse, and she hasn't been very nice."   
"Um, Kasumi," Nabiki managed nervously as a number of glares were   
turned her way.   
"None of his girlfriends get along with each other. Shampoo's from   
such a different way of life that she tries to draw him closer, but only   
drives him away."   
"Hmm?" Shampoo turned introspective for a moment as she considered   
this.   
"Ukyo's viewed as an old male buddy. Kodachi," Kasumi paused, "I   
have heard is probably not all right in the head. Akane neither trusts   
nor listens to what he has to say."   
"Nobody ever listens to me," grumped Ranma.   
"What was that, Ranma?" Akane asked in a distracted tone. What was   
Kasumi doing?   
"Nobody listens to him, or believes him even when he's telling the   
truth."   
"He's not rich," said Nabiki, genuinely seeing this as a major   
shortcoming. "He doesn't understand the value of a yen."   
"He's not wise in money matters, either," translated Kasumi. "He's   
not wealthy or that responsible. In short, he's got a lot of rough edges   
that need polished."   
"He also can't leap TALL buildings, isn't stronger than a   
locomotive, tougher than a tank, or faster than a speeding bullet." Ukyo   
put in, then blinked when Kasumi repeated all that word for word.   
Kasumi paused, ignoring the strange looks she was getting as she   
took a deep breath. "I wish you'd fix it so that all these shortcomings   
and problems were no longer applicable to Ranma, and that he remains   
both alive and male."   
Everyone blinked a few times. Akane whistled, impressed.   
GRANTED!> The sword grunted and shattered, having exceeded its   
magical capacity.   
Ranma vanished. 

*****   
Back In Universe C 

Urd smiled at her monitor.   
"Gotcha, Mara. That *dear* Tendo girl used a fifth class magical   
object to make a first class wish. Now this could go one of two ways.   
The poor sword could contact the nearest class one magical power and   
petition it for energy to fulfill the wish, probably with nasty   
consequences as most powers of that level are either mischievous or hate   
to be disturbed. Or...."   
The view focused in on perfect lips, expanding out to see Urd's   
glinting, too-innocent expression.   
"It could evoke a simple transport enchantment on the nearest Ranma   
who fits those terms. Hmm, which will it choose?"   
Her finger stabbed down on a button, Urd innocently looking the   
other way as it did the dirty deed. Then she brought both hands to her   
face and squirmed in giggles. Relaxing, she leaned back in her chair.   
"And it's not as if I've broken the rules. My action was on a   
magical object, not *any* of the major players." 

Unfortunately, Skuld and Belldandy had been trying much the same   
thing with other worlds at roughly the same times. And since Belldandy   
was acknowledged as a principle player on one of those worlds her   
intervention was allowed to be significant.   
It was just bad luck that lots of other things started to happen at   
once. 

There was a gravitic disturbance of measurable proportions not far   
from the third planet of the sol system. When the shimmering globe of   
distorted realtime had stabilized a small fleet of warships had   
appeared.   
"De-fold operation completed Admiral. Any further orders?"   
Lisa sat rigidly in her chair, unable to take any comfort. "No,   
Claudia. Just monitor the local communications channels and try not to   
be picked up on our approach to Earth."   
"Well, I don't see how there's any chance of that." Offered one of   
the bridge girls. "After all, at the era we're jumping into they   
shouldn't have more than a few telescopes trained on the skies. Most of   
*our* satellites from the period were trained on weather patterns."   
"I only hope Belldandy knew what she was doing and coming here to   
get him home is really as important as she says it is." Lisa sat in   
concern. "I would rather have waited for him to get back on his own, if   
we could." 

Around Earth a massively armed space station orbited, and alarms   
were sounding.   
A woman ran up the stairs to the command platform in the open bridge   
area. Panting, she slid into her console station before the commander's   
chair.   
"What do we got?" He asked of her.   
The lady slid on her headset, expertly reading her monitors as the   
rest of the command crew scurried about. "An object or objects which we   
can't identify has penetrated our Absolute Defense Sphere and the course   
it's now on will bring it into collision with this station in less than   
eleven minutes!"   
"WHAT?!!"   
For the commander it had been like asking the time of day and being   
told it was merely minutes until the legitimate end of the world. The   
female crewer went on to state. "Unidentified object bearing intelligent   
life forms. Estimated fighting power above level three hundred!"   
The commander swept the room with his voice. "Sound action stations.   
Condition Red!"   
"Roger." The bridge girl who's job it was keyed the override,   
station-wide alert channel and began speaking very calmly. "Action   
stations. Action stations. All strike units scramble immediately. All   
strike units, scramble immediately."   
In the barracks pilots looked up from their games and scattered to   
the music of alarms and running feet amidst a hail of falling cards. The   
duty watch of pilots ran from their ready rooms into the seats of   
waiting fighters. Automated control systems immediately began closing   
hatches and feeding the launch fighters through their armament stations. 

A local command officer gave authorization to open the weapon   
magazines and soon bulky canisters potent enough to make normal missiles   
seem like cartons of cream cheese were sliding down tracks where robotic   
loading systems began fitting them to corresponding launchers on the   
strike fighters. As the first rank of fighters completed arming the rest   
of the pilots were already pouring in while new ranks of fighters were   
brought forward to their bays.   
A major sat in his cockpit and swallowed heavily as he triggered the   
control that would bring his squadron into launch position.   
The process was over sooner than many could have believed possible.   
Intercom carried the flight leader's voice to the bridge. "Strike   
units ready for takeoff."   
"Roger, Strike One." The female officer pivoted to face her   
commander. "Sir?"   
The officer made the best decision he was able. "All strike units,   
take off!"   
"Aye aye, sir." The lady turned again to her communicator. "Strike   
One, this is Command Center. Launch all units."   
Thrusters lit up and began catapulting strike fighters in staggered   
formation off of the launch pads. Soon they were taking positions as   
squadrons and flights where overall command reverted to the strike   
leaders.   
The bridge spoke across the comm one last time. "Target maintaining   
speed and has now penetrated Sector Yellow Two. No change in target's   
course which is calculated to take it into Earth's orbit." The soft   
female voice delivered the final orders. "All strike units intercept and   
disable."   
"Roger."   
"Strike One to all units. Take up attack formation E. All units,   
take up attack formation E."   
Additional thrusters were fired as the very finest of Earth's   
technological might hurtled through the deep. Monitors added their store   
of computer data and predictions as they tore through space, pilots   
checking stores lists in the seconds available.   
All too soon the range had been closed and the destructive canister   
torpedoes were fired, racing ahead to intercept the foe. 

Warning alarms woke up all over the bridge of the SDF-2.   
"What is it, Claudia?"   
"Unprovoked surprise attack from the planet's vicinity." The black   
woman at the tactical command console responded.   
"Engaging Full Barrier Defense Field." Called another of the bridge   
girls.   
Lisa's face was illuminated by the flashes as explosions blasted   
across their ship, rippling against their newly raised shield. "Contact   
the planet, tell them that we intend them *no harm!*"   
Sammy looked up from her board. "Really? That's not what we did the   
*last* time?"   
Lisa thought about it while the SDF-2 rocked with the explosions   
against their defense field. As the bridge lurched she replied. "That's   
right. If we take any more Earth missiles, strike BACK at them! Don't   
pull your punches, begin launching our counterstrike!" Then to herself.   
"Don't worry, Ranma, we're coming for you." The admiral again raised her   
head. "Patch me through to all veritechs!"   
"Roger!" Claudia tripped the appropriate lever. "You're on Admiral." 

Lisa sat straight in her chair, composed and purposeful. "Men, this   
is a day for death or glory! The key to our new homes, the survival of   
our entire adopted universe and the man who singlehandedly saved all our   
lives in our original depends on you. The one man we've all fought and   
bled for is somewhere down on that planet. He is waiting for us, and no   
one can retrieve him but you. God go with you."   
Lisa had risen to her feet, as she sat down Claudia terminated the   
channel.   
"Orders, Admiral?"   
"I couldn't do otherwise, Claudia. You know the *last* time we came   
to rescue him we had only seconds to spare before a vengeful third party   
tried to kill him. Diplomatic action takes weeks at best."   
"I never questioned you, Lisa. Orders?"   
"Signal full attack. Notify all Gun Commanders to open fire as   
opportunity presents itself. Launch all veritech squadrons and deploy   
the main gun for firing. I want arming teams ready to outfit all   
veritechs with reflex, multi-warhead and nuclear-tipped missiles as they   
return to reload! Equip the destroids with space maneuver packs and get   
them out there on the hull. I've got a feeling this one will descend to   
close fighting."   
"Sir!" Sammy smiled from her station. "Zentraedi Commander requests   
that the Ranko music be played to bolster troop morale."   
"Do it, Sammy. Take one of the fight songs from one of her movies.   
And here's the return message: All fleet units are free to engage!" 

Two starships swam forth from a brief hole in the spacetime fabric.   
The first blocky and angular with sharp, crystalline structures, the   
other smooth like a sea mammal.   
The sharp vessel leapt forward from its red-hulled companion. On the   
bridge of the smooth Galaxy Police starship Ayeka's face appeared on the   
intership viewscreen, looking down on those below with unyielding   
command.   
"Kiyone? Mihoshi? This will be a fight to the death. Under no   
circumstances must Ranma escape alive!"   
"Copy Ayeka." Kiyone agreed, professionally screening her own doubts   
about this. "But are you sure that killing him is necessary to restore   
our own pasts?"   
The galactic super-genius Washu appeared on split-screen. "We won't   
really be killing him. Once we've destroyed this aspect of his relative   
incarnation, our past will resume, with its own copy of Ranma in it. The   
disruption will be over and everything will revert to normal. So so long   
as we manage to destroy him any damage we do here won't have happened.   
Do ya copy?"   
"I think so."   
"Wow? Does this mean that we won't have to pay for any damages?"   
Mihoshi hopped in her seat brightly. "That's good. I only got a teensy   
scratch on a space station once and they made me pay three whole year's   
salary just to fix it! Can you believe that?"   
"Enough! Cover us here while we make our attack!" Ayeka commanded as   
the angular starship made a lunge for the planet's surface. Ryoko's face   
replaced Ayeka's on the viewscreen of the smoother galaxy policeship   
they were leaving behind. "For once the princess and I agree on   
something. Don't worry, we'll try not to give you any local trouble."   
"Oooo, I hope not." Kiyone keyed her seat controls unwillingly.   
"Assault on a neutral star system not even in contact with the Juraian   
Empire. This place has been off-limits from *before* they developed   
space travel. They'd lock me up for eternity. I hope you know what   
you're doing."   
Washu's laughing face reappeared. "Trust me." 

On the SDF-2 the communication's girl giggled, selecting the style   
of Ranko music. "This ought to keep 'em guessing!" She toggled a switch   
and the tape began to play over all channels.   
Once the instrumental intro was over Ranko's recorded image began to   
sing in a revealing costume while dancing superbly with an assortment of   
lethal weapons while an all-male chorus chanted support for her in the   
background.   
* 

"Raise the flag of Piracy!   
Sing the song of Victory!   
For glorious in battle are We! 

We've never known defeat.   
We never will retreat. 

We LIVE to hear the cannon Roar!   
And TERROR is our Semaphore!   
For gloriously lonesome are we! 

We rob the rich and poor,   
then steal a little more! 

(chorus rising to full throated voice)   
Victory!   
We fight to win!   
Victory!   
Is ours again!   
We are the scourge of the Endless Sea!   
Beastly pirates are we! 

*   
Space was alive with explosions as the transforming veritechs   
engaged the Earth strike fighters just outside Earth's atmosphere.   
Missiles sped to targets and flaming debris scattered in clouds as   
missiles, oxygen tanks and fuel detonated in silent blasts.   
The angular spaceship bearing Ayeka and Ryoko dove through this mess   
to reach the planet, blasting apart fighters from both sides as they   
tried to oppose it.   
The Galaxy Police craft Yagami hung back, trying to make sense out   
of this madness.   
In the Yagami, Kiyone glared at her partner, who was watching some   
broadcast of some girl dancing and singing in a too cute outfit. "Hey, I   
could use some help, you know!" Kiyone groused.   
Mihoshi continued to munch on her potato chips, motioning to her   
screen with a finger. "I know, Kiyone. But doesn't that look an awful   
lot like the girl form of the guy we're after?"   
Kiyone stared flabbergasted at the screen, remembering scrapbook   
photos. "Oh, my word! I think you're right! C'mon, now we know what side   
we're up against! Bring her around. We going to make sure those people   
can't interfere with Ayeka!" 

The SDF-2 shook as a hail of laser blasts penetrated their shields   
and suddenly began raining down on all decks.   
"What *is* that!" Lisa screamed, holding onto her command chair.   
"A new opponent has engaged us. Their weapons are not stopped by our   
Barrier Defense Screen at all!"   
The bridge shook again and light from the explosions accompanied the   
screams.   
A ship began to decloak right off their flank. 

"Photon torpedoes armed and ready, sir."   
"Fire!"   
A blip, a foreshadowing of energy that was merely a reflection of   
the charging power, glowed from the leftmost torpedo tube on the   
starship's main pylon. With a long streak of light a miniature red star   
spat forth. Streaming across the heavens it struck Yagami in the flank.   
Swells followed from the right, left and right tubes again as a total of   
four of the mighty weapons sped forth to impact heavily on the armor and   
shields of the Galaxy Police patrolship.   
Spock looked up from his sensors. "Direct hits, Captain. There is an   
overall 40% reduction in their shield capacity and a hole in their   
defensive barrier under the point of impact. The hole is beginning to   
regenerate."   
"Phasors, Fire." The Captain curtly ordered the weapons officer,   
looking away from the screens where transmissions of Orchid's performing   
were being received from the SDF-2.   
Down in the bowels of the starship crews worked rapidly at their   
duties rearming the mighty torpedoes tubes. Toxic gasses were vented   
from the firing chambers into space while inner surfaces were cooled by   
injections of liquid nitrogen compounds. Locks were cycling even as the   
main cartridges were gently being delivered down their armament racks.   
Gates opened to accept the containers even while technicians prepared to   
siphon power from the main warp core.   
Interlocks closed over the torpedoes, securing them within the   
arming circuits. The loading commander gave the go-ahead nod and power   
conduits popped open, pouring into the sealed chambers the raw energy of   
matter-antimatter reactions, awakening in the previously dormant weapon   
cartridges the potential for the same vast destructive force.   
On the bridge the stabs and licks of phasor fire could be seen   
raking the Galaxy Patrol ship. Stabs of return fire shook the bridge of   
the Enterprise but the helmsman was directing their ship in brilliant   
evasive tactics even while the space around them was alive with   
fighters.   
Jewels came alight on the weapons console.   
"Photon torpedoes armed and ready, sir." Chekhov repeated.   
"Target the hole in their shields and fire." Captain James T. Kirk   
ordered.   
Four more bright red stars streaked across the heavens. Yagami   
turned, trying to bring more of her shields to bear against the   
brilliant maneuvering of the Enterprise. One torpedo glinted off at an   
oblique angle, wasting much of its destructive force. Two more struck   
forcefully on panels of shields, while the last sped unerringly into the   
hole created by the previous volley of torps and kept open by the   
phasors.   
The back half of the Yagami exploded in smoke and shrapnel. Lights   
of energy fires smoldered and flowed within her ruined rear decks,   
showing through bulkheads blasted and broken. Follow through stabs of   
phasor fire blossomed a huge concussive blast from the crippled   
starship's flank, heeling the vessel about drunkenly. Engine power   
fluttered on the Galaxy Police starship and she began to list heavily   
and drift, trailing behind a sparkling cloud of debris.   
Kirk leaned into one of his seat arms. "Send to commander Yagami:   
Prepare to be boarded."   
Uhura nodded, turning to her controls. "Yagami, this is Enterprise.   
Surrender and prepare to be boarded." 

"Signal the Enterprise." Lisa called, climbing back into her seat.   
"Thank them for their assistance. Suggest a truce while we conduct our   
rescue operation."   
"Roger, Admiral."   
Outside their viewing panes one of their accompanying Zentraedi   
cruisers opened up full thrusters and barreled right into the Earth   
space station that had been firing in assistance of its fighters.   
Armored deck plates crumpled under the bow strike and cascaded from its   
flanks as the starship rammed, tearing apart the station and shoving   
itself completely through the expanding field of wreckage.   
"At a guess our materials technology is higher than our enemies."   
Claudia summarized.   
And Lisa was quietly thinking that only a Zentraedi commander would   
be fanatical enough to use that way to find out. 

On the bridge of the Yagami, Kiyone was clinging to her command   
chair even while the ship shuddered through sympathetic explosions in   
her deep hull. Smoke from overloaded wall breakers poured into the cabin   
through seams, controls shorted messily and violently while half her   
screens and monitors had either broken or were displaying nothing but   
static.   
A pair of gray uniform clad legs jutted at odd angles from the mess   
piled at the side of the main console, the upper portions of the body   
concealed in the wreck.   
"Ow." Mihoshi offered eloquently.   
One wall monitor sprang back to life, displaying Uhura's features   
fuzzily through static. "Commander Yagami, this is Enterprise. Repeat:   
Surrender and prepare to be boarded."   
Kiyone killed the communications, rising from her seat and trying to   
extract her partner from the wreck. "C'mon, Mihoshi." She said tiredly.   
"We've got company coming. We wouldn't want to disappoint them."   
Mihoshi sprang out of the fallen equipment. "Wow! Company? Well,   
first we have *got* to clean up the place. We *can't* have guests over   
with it looking like this. I'll get the vacuum cleaner and you can   
repair the control panels. Oh, and *then* we're going to need some   
refreshment. I think that bottle of Scottish Whiskey ought to do   
alright... What?"   
Mihoshi put a finger to her lip puzzled at why her companion had her   
face in her hands and was groaning. 

Phasor bombs, beamed in by transporter, preceded the first boarding   
parties. Their wash of explosive energy scouring the landing points   
clear of any and all defenders or pre-prepared traps. Squads of armored   
boarding troops materialized soon afterwards poised in firing positions. 

Spock calmly activated the portable scanning unit, meticulously   
sweeping for possible resistance while the commanding sergeant moved his   
troops out to an expanded ring of control.   
The second wave beamed in.   
Spock's scanners locked onto their targets.   
He spoke calmly to the commanding sergeant. "We will seize any and   
all data regarding this period from the ship's main computer. This will   
allow us to avoid having to repeat disruptions and hopefully minimize   
our further impact upon this time period. You will take the first three   
waves and contain the crew of this vessel so they will be unable to   
interfere with my interfacing their computer. Do you understand?"   
Third wave was beaming in. The veteran sergeant nodded. 

Ranko, walking towards Graviton High School, vanished in a cloud of   
sparkling motes.   
This alarmed and amazed Kasumi, Nabiki, and Serena who'd been   
waiting to meet him. Sufficiently that Serena excused herself to go off   
and contact Luna to see if a scan could turn up whatever had   
disintegrated Ranko right before their eyes.   
Nabiki and Kasumi, on the other hand, were absolutely certain that   
wherever Ranma had been last week, they had found a way to get him back. 

This caused two things.   
Ranko bounced once in one universe before hitting the other. And she   
left a very easy to track multiversal trace on her way. 

*****   
Random Universe 7, Bounce Universe 

Ranko appeared in her Graviton school uniform perched on the   
pinnacle of the Saotome household. Below she could see a battle brewing.   
Amazons on both sides, Ranma heading across the lawn away from his   
mother. At a quick guess from everyone's posture he was about to   
surrender himself into slavery to preserve those he loved.   
Not if *SHE* could help it. 

An annoying beeping sounded across the battlefield. Those who chose   
not to pay attention to it were quickly remedied of their error when a   
beam of light came down and incinerated a line across the lawn.   
All looked up (they couldn't get any more ready for battle, everyone   
there was already as ready as they could get).   
Silhouetted against the sky was a girl.   
A girl with long, flowing hair and a *very* BIG sword.   
Ranko's lines either came on a whim or from external prompting, she   
couldn't tell.   
"The Sky, the Earth, and the pager have called! Summoning forth the   
high school babe! The Greatest Warrior Maiden! Ranko Saotome, 17 years   
of age."   
Three Amazon Elders came to the front and readied their weapons   
against her. Ranko could see great-grandmother among them and bit back a   
tear. Man, she *hated* it when those she loved chose evil over good. But   
the chi signatures here were unmistakable.   
She swallowed her tears and summoned her chi. She *would* make an   
effort to reclaim her, though. In desperation, she began to pour her   
whole soul into the effort. Low drums began to sound, intermingled with   
the tolling of a very deep bell.   
Ranko's voice floated everywhere. Reaching into training she didn't   
know she had it filled the entire city, leaving not a home, an apartment   
block or a sewer tunnel unreached as she sang the question.   
* 

"Do you hear the people sing?   
Singing the song of angry men.   
It is the music of a people,   
who will not be slaves again. 

When the beating of your heart   
echoes the beating of the drums   
There is a life about to start,   
when tomorrow comes." 

(Ranko had to stop for her tears. Unexpectedly, an image of herself   
attired as an amazon appeared beside her, glowing softly like a fallen   
Jedi in a Star Wars movie. The ghostly Ranko picked up the song where it   
had left off, entreating those below.) 

"Will you join in our crusade?   
Who will be strong and stand with me?" 

(A flickering Sailor Earth joined then on a neighboring peak.) 

"Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?" 

(A second flickering and softly glowing Ranko appeared on the original's   
other side, dressed in combat fatigues and wearing pistols on both hips.   
She took over the next line.) 

"Then join in the fight that will give you the right to be free!" 

(Suddenly there were thousands of ghostly Ranmas and Rankos. Appearing   
on every wall and rooftop and dressed in every style from nearly every   
age. There were bankers and cooks and cyberware surgeons alongside   
Chinese peasants and Japanese lords. All of them Ranma or his curse, and   
all of them singing in thundering unison.) 

"Do you hear the people sing?   
Singing the song of angry men.   
It is the music of a people,   
who will not be slaves again. 

When the beating of your heart   
echoes the beating of the drums   
There is a life about to start,   
when tomorrow comes." 

(A glowing Ranma stepped forward from the rest, garbed in the arms and   
armor of a feudal samurai.) 

"Will you give all you can give so that our banner may advance?" 

(A ghostly Ranma dressed in the robes of a physician to the Chinese   
Emperor warned to all his friends within the flow of the music.) 

"Some will fall and some will live." 

(Next a Ranma dressed as an Arabian street rat cockily challenged those   
watching.) 

"Will you stand up and take your chance?" 

(A Ranko stood out from all the rest, in a long, flowing white dress.) 

"The blood of the martyrs will strengthen their fellows' advance!" 

(The entire troupe of Ranma/Ranko's took up the chorus, singing in a   
force to cut to the conscience and instill remorse.) 

"Do you hear the people sing?   
Singing the song of angry men.   
It is the music of a people,   
who will not be slaves again. 

When the beating of your heart   
echoes the beating of the drums   
There is a life about to start,   
when tomorrow comes." 

*   
The horde of specters vanished as it had come, leaving only Ranko   
still silhouetted upon the sky.   
She regained her voice.   
"Elder Cologne. As the eldest female of my house who is educated in   
Amazon law I claim rights to decide the disposition of my brother."   
Another elder, a lorekeeper, spoke up before Cologne could answer.   
"He's stolen from the tribe, dearie. Alot of good your pretty tricks   
will do about him taking two of our war slaves."   
The sweep of her staff indicated Kasumi and Nabiki.   
Cologne spoke, some regret in her voice. Laws passed when outrage   
and anger were prevalent had lasted long after tempers had cooled, but   
they were laws nonetheless. "Your brother is making a sacrifice to save   
his family, child. There is treason against our law and all sorts of   
things mixed up into this mess. If you restrain him now then we'll be   
forced to kill you all."   
"Trial by combat?"   
"Too broad an issue, dearie." The lorekeeper answered. "This goes   
beyond the Right of Combat and into sedition. War is the only way to   
solve it."   
Ranko's face went flat.   
"Then so be it."   
In the tradition of the Great Build-Up Ranko assumed a stance with   
her weapon, calling. "I hold my family to be dear above all. To those   
who would threaten to destroy any member of it, I can show no mercy!"   
Blue Ranko brought her sword up, leaping a mile into the air. Even   
as she disappeared in the distance her voice could be heard crying out.   
"School of the Righteous Blade, Ultimate Sword Technique! Galaxy   
Cleaver!"   
That name, coupled with the performance to date, had Cologne hopping   
out of that yard as fast as her legs and stick could carry her. Most of   
the Amazons who respected her followed soon after. Those who remained   
either condemned them for cowards or thought secretly about joining   
them.   
The Amazon Comb, formerly the Japanese girl Akane Tendo, was among   
those who remained that condemned them. Beside her, the suddenly wary   
lorekeeper readied a combat spell.   
A dot appeared in the sky, resolving into a girl swinging a really   
amazingly huge sword down on those Amazons who remained poised against   
her family.   
The lorekeeper fired off her bolt even as the attack came down.   
The amazon elders had their defenses fail and were sawn in half by   
the sheer chi energy of the strike. Those less fortunate Amazons without   
centuries of experience were toppled into handily shredded and   
bite-sized chunks.   
Ranko could feel her blade smiting the enemy, even as lightning   
ripped apart her stomach. At the back of her mind she was reminding   
herself not to use this again soon against anyone capable of reprisal.   
That particular technique didn't allow at all for her own defense.   
She also felt surprise at the tug of being moved off to another   
universe.   
One of the gods of that world made a grab for the fleeing martial   
artist, and held on.   
Struggling to fill both imperatives, Ranma unconsciously activated   
one of his rarer chi techniques.   
With the result that half of Blue Ranma went to fulfill the wish and   
half remained. 

*****   
Neighboring Universe 

Ranko fell onto the floor with a resounding thump, falling backwards   
she lay sprawled upon the wood.   
"RANCHAN!!!"   
"AIREN!!!!"   
Nabiki's eyes were not the only ones to fly wide at the sight of the   
gaping hole charred into Ranko's abdomen. All around her yen signs were   
falling to the floor and shriveling. "Guess you forgot to say anything   
about life-threatening injuries, Kasumi."   
Now why did she feel so choked up about this? He was just a   
freeloader, right? Just another source of income?   
Why was she having such difficulty believing that?   
Ranko groped for the closest female hand. Recognizing Ucchan's, she   
softly smiled through eyes blinded by pain. Strangely no music began to   
play as she half-sung her conversation.   
* 

"Now you are here, again beside me.   
Now I can die in peace, for I know that you still love me." 

*   
"RANCHAN!" Ukyo flung herself over the prone form.   
"Husband no die, okay?" Shampoo placed two hesitant hands on Ranko's   
forehead, who smiled strangely at the touch.   
* 

"Yes, Shampoo. Forbid me now to die.   
I'll obey."   
(a slight cough filled with blood)   
"I will try." 

*   
An old man cleared his voice behind them. "Ahem. Yes, well, touching   
as this scene is. I'm afraid, Orchid, that my daughter would be rather   
depressed if you didn't allow her to save your life. She's been wanting   
to for days now."   
"What!?!" All of Ranma's usual fiancees chorused.   
They turned to see an old man dressed in the clothes of a Shinto   
priest, beside whom stood three young ladies. One of them (the one with   
spiky cyan hair) clenched a fist and lightning began to form around it.   
"Alright. Which one of you did this to Orchid?!"   
The old man restrained her with an out flung arm as a somewhat timid   
girl took a few paces forward. Though her manner was not the most   
confident, in her eyes there was unyielding determination.   
And after one spectacular light display she had closed up all of   
Ranko's wounds, patching them with visible fields of energy that   
regenerated her flesh.   
"Oh my." Kasumi blinked. "That was very useful of you," she said,   
wondering if she could learn to do that.   
"Where you learn do trick like that?" Shampoo was curious, her   
thoughts curiously mirroring Kasumi's for once.   
"Orchid taught me." The girl replied, kneeling down at Ranko's side. 

Nobody denied her a place there.   
Kasumi's wits were more shock-protected than Nabiki's were. She   
asked the next question, noticing where the looks were going. "Do you   
mean Ranma?"   
The outsider woman who had not yet spoken replied for her party. "Is   
that Orchid's name? When my brother found her she had no memory, and so   
he named her for the mystery of her origin. Or at least so they told me.   
I am Ayeka, princess of Jurai, and this is my brother Yosho. The girl   
who has just saved your friend's life is Achika, my brother's daughter.   
And this..."   
Ayeka's face strained to fight off a scowl, a losing battle that she   
fought anyway. "This is Ryoko."   
"Howdy."   
The home crowd blinked in eerie unison.   
Achika spoke from beside the former near-corpse. "Ranma seems like   
such a wrong name for her. Did her mother name her?"   
Ukyo blinked at that. "Uh, no. I think it was his father."   
Achika didn't seem to notice the pronoun, drawing comfort from her   
friend's renewed presence in her life, even though the girl wasn't awake   
yet. "Oh. I think I'd like to still call her Orchid. If she doesn't   
mind, that is."   
Yosho had a smile on. "Now, daughter. When has Orchid ever minded   
anything you did for her?"   
"What?!?" A handful of female faces suddenly acquired deadly   
grimaces.   
Yosho went on to say. "Yes, such a sweet young lady she is too. I am   
glad you have her to learn your lessons on gentle behavior from."   
Nabiki's hair hadn't unfrazzled yet and she remained out of this   
conversation. The words 'Gentle Behavior' were resounding around in more   
skulls than hers. Again it was Kasumi who spoke up. "Oh, I'm afraid   
Ranma's not a girl."   
It was the visiting team's turn to blink.   
Yosho lowered his eyes and cleared his throat. "I am afraid that   
when she arrived her clothes had been taken from her. Her gender was   
quite apparent."   
Kasumi excused herself to go heat some water.   
After about a minute Ukyo had recovered enough to ask. "So, how did   
you find Ranchan, anyway?"   
Yosho had crossed to the door. He looked out and laughed, speaking   
back over his shoulder to the people inside. "Well, dimension hopping   
isn't entirely out of my experience. Besides, I felt I owed it to the   
child. You see, Orchid was my guest when she was assassinated."   
Akane sat up from her faint and asked what was happening. Only she   
used stronger language.   
Ranko moaned softly and sat up, holding her head. Seeing a sea of   
concerned female faces before her, her eyes sought out the one most   
unexpected.   
"Achika!" She cried joyfully.   
Nabiki's brain restarted. Ranma had glomped somebody. No, better   
make that RANMA had *glomped* somebody?!?? Here, the guy who acted like   
a seven-year old scared of cooties had actually glomped onto a *girl*?   
And the two of them were hugging like better friends than *she'd*   
ever had.   
Shampoo was pulling out a bonbori when the amazon heard a crackling   
from across the room. Looking there, she saw Ryoko holding a ball of   
orange lightning hovering above her hand. The cyan-haired woman shook   
her head no; Hitting people she cared about was not allowed.   
Shampoo smiled weakly and put her bonbori away.   
Kasumi returned with the water and stood next to the seated Ranma.   
"I'm afraid Ranma is under a curse. His father took him to a training   
ground, and I'm afraid it wasn't a very nice place. Now Mr. Saotome   
turns into a panda, and Ranma becomes a girl. The curse is activated by   
water temperature."   
She poured the hot water over Ranma.   
Nobody in the room was prepared for what he turned into.   
Ranma almost didn't notice, being busy pouring all sorts of sisterly   
affection into the hug with Yosho's daughter. Then suddenly the feeling   
of the hug changed and he withdrew to look around himself, noting all   
the eyes cast in his direction.   
"Well!?" Akane demanded. "Are you...."   
She kinda trailed off when she noticed what the rest of the group   
had been staring at. Her eyes widened as she drank in the sight before   
her. Akane mopped her head, wondering why the air conditioner seemed to   
have given out. It was the only explanation she could think of for it   
getting so hot and humid.   
"Ranchan...." Ukyo couldn't think of how to put it. At first she was   
merely intending to catalog the changes, but swiftly found that she was   
undressing him with her eyes. She stopped that with a considerable   
effort and a shuddering breath. "Oh my."   
He grew increasingly nervous at this treatment, surreptitiously   
checking his shirt for stains. He experience a moment of great relief   
that he hadn't remained in his girl's school uniform.   
Achika had released him and so he stood, not sure if he should be   
angling for the door or not.   
Kasumi blinked up at him, her eyes not quite focused as she seemed   
to be imagining something. "How do you feel, Ranma?"   
"Um, alright, I guess." He hedged suspiciously. "How *should* I   
feel?"   
Nabiki shook her head to clear it after Ukyo had momentarily blocked   
her line of sight. She felt an unfamiliar surge of possessiveness as she   
watched the others (including Kasumi?!) check out the changes on this   
new Ranma from multiple angles.   
"Just perfect, Saotome. Here you waste a wish trying to become a   
worthwhile fiance and what do we get? Blonde hair. This is a joke."   
Nabiki realized her voice had gone all husky and she wasn't going to   
convince anyone. Ranma was clearly taller, broader of shoulder, thickly   
muscled, with the sort of look of a David meets Adonis that would make   
huge bucks in a modeling career.   
Nabiki began to reconsider certain things. With the right agent he   
would be *just* rich enough for marriage. And if not, well, a short,   
passionate affair sounded right to her.   
"Wow." Ryoko murmured, floating over to get a better look.   
"Oh my!" Ayeka and Kasumi chorused, having regained their voices.   
Achika had recovered somewhat and shot a delight-filled look to her   
father that was clearly a request.   
He thought about it for a brief moment and nodded.   
"Okay, so he's a hunk." Ukyo chipped in. "What about the rest of the   
stuff we ordered?"   
"Shampoo curious. Want see how husband view amazon wife and customs   
now."   
Ranma tried hard to fight a grin... and lost. Shampoo, does this   
mean that you really *do* love me?>   
Her eyes grew round as saucer plates to hear him speaking fluently   
in her native dialect. She remained still for just a moment, then   
glomped onto him with a power and energy to make facehuggers from the   
movie Alien seem noncommittal. All the while she was shouting in joy.   
Oh, Husband I love you *very* much! Let's go back to the village   
right now and make many many babies!> The beautiful amazon began looking   
for the nearest exit wide enough for two people.   
"RAAANNMMMAAAAAA!!!!!!!" The kitchen table was seized and began the   
Swing of Jealous Female Fury (tm).   
Said martial artist smoothly extricated himself from Shampoo's   
embrace (to the astonishment of those who'd expected heavy machinery to   
be required for that task) and had stopped Akane's blow effortlessly   
while at the same time kicking her in the face.   
Hard.   
It was just enough to knock Akane out of the way as fields of   
lightning and an orange laser ripped through where she'd been, tearing   
apart the walls of the house behind her.   
There was a loud thunk as Akane's limp and unconscious body hit the   
tatami mats.   
Ayeka and Ryoko dropped their stances. Ryoko blew on her fingers in   
quite a clear gesture of warning.   
Everyone sat staring.   
After several minutes of this Nabiki reached over and borrowed one   
of Ukyo's throwing spatulas, using it to pry her own jaw off the floor.   
Ukyo blinked, and then her grin went from ear to ear. "Alright   
Ranchan! About time somebody did that."   
"Oh my." Kasumi found it hard to approve. Striking Akane just was   
not right, even if she was a violent maniac.   
Akane groaned and began to get up. Noting the burned out walls, she   
became fairly subdued. It was either that or the faint electrical   
charges surrounding that Ayeka girl. It *couldn't* be the expression on   
Ryoko's face that said human life was not always that important to her,   
and right now Akane was low on the list.   
"What exactly was your wish concerning me?" Ranma asked, reducing   
the hostility by drawing attention away from it.   
There was the sound of a huge explosion and half of the neighborhood   
outside was destroyed as a purple-armored giant skidded across it on its   
back.   
"And... excuse me please."   
Ranma vanished outside the door to see what was going on.   
The Tendo house in this reality was beachfront property, with a dock   
leading out into the water and a pair of small sailboats moored there.   
Far out in the water two giant creatures were battling, one mechanical   
and ugly, the other organic and even uglier. A similar pair were   
battling it out just inshore. The organic ones in both cases were   
winning handily.   
Ranma began charging up his chi just in case the battle shifted   
their way.   
And nothing happened.   
Shocked, Ranma reached harder and tried more to get his inner focus   
in line for battle.   
Nothing happened.   
He did a swift internal check that would have taken a Buddhist monk   
centuries to perfect. There was nothing wrong with his system.   
Everything worked fine. It was just that he had no batteries of fighting   
chi to power his special abilities.   
He took a full second figuring it out. His doppleganger technique?   
He didn't remember activating it. That was an ability he'd created back   
in the Robotech universe when someone had come close to uncovering his   
dual identity and he absolutely *had* to be in two places at once.   
At the time it hadn't mattered that it made him unable to use his   
chi energy until it was over, he'd almost never had to pull on that kind   
of resource back there.   
Here it mattered, and it mattered big. Somehow, somewhere, another   
one of him was running about, and neither one would be able to use any   
of his chi powers until they rejoined. Which made finding his other self   
a priority.   
But important only *after* he'd assured himself that this situation   
was okay.   
The crowd had followed him out onto the dock.   
"Oh, Ranchan." Ukyo spoke, looking toward the fight. "Both EVAs are   
down. That means the UN is probably going to use an N2 mine to stop the   
angel."   
"We're dead." Akane summarized in horror.   
Nabiki turned to Ranma. "I've always found you attractive, Ranma."   
He smirked. His mind had been searching and it had found an   
alternate energy source, one that not too many universes had available.   
He looked toward her. "Thank you, Nabs. But you are going to feel   
*awfully* embarrassed having said that when we get out of this alive."   
He leapt to the top of a fence, flexing his muscles and shouting.   
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down. Where treasure   
glitters, I'm there to claim it. Where an enemy rises to face me...   
Victory will be mine!!!"   
"Yes, well. Enjoy fighting the demon." Yosho said from where he sat   
sipping some tea Kasumi had brought him. "We can discuss the other   
things when you return."   
Achika's eyes glimmered in concern for Ranma, but she caught her   
father's expression that said: "Wait and see."   
"What husband do?"   
Ranma grinned down from his perch. "No time to explain, Shampoo. I   
gotta go."   
"Wait, Ranchan, I'll go with you!"   
He smiled back down at his best friend. "Sorry, Ucchan. You can't   
help. And I'd worry about my cute fiancee if you got too close." He   
leapt up into the air, not noticing that Ukyo suddenly had little hearts   
floating in the air around her. Nabiki absently batted one away that got   
too close.   
"RAYWING!"   
All eight girls watched dumbfounded as Ranma flew away.   
"Oh my, he really *can* leap tall buildings in a bound now, can't   
he?" Kasumi smiled, pouring a new cup of tea for the princess Ayeka.   
"Hey, this guy looks like fun." Ryoko summarized, beginning to float   
off after him. 

*****   
Random 7, Bounce Universe 

Ranma awoke, determine that she was a she still, and blinked as she   
recognized the figure above her. "Amy?"   
Amy Anderson blinked down at her patient. "Ah, Ranma?"   
Ranko's eyes flicked to the other occupant of the room and widened   
slightly. "Tigar? Are you in trouble with the Elders again?>"   
"You could say that,>" Tigar looked like she hadn't gotten much   
sleep lately. "When did you pick up our language?>"   
"Long story," Blue Ranko said with a sigh. "Okay, Amy, would you   
mind telling me what's going on here?"   
"Well, I..." Amy glanced nervously at the Amazon.   
"You appeared in sky, scared hell out of loyalists." Tigar frowned.   
"Like to know how you do attack. Then *bakun* you sucked into hole in   
sky. Tigar see you split. One half go through. You fall down. Amy friend   
catch you."   
"That was Sailor Jupiter, I don't know any of the Scouts." Amy   
blinked.   
Tigar's expression went flat and unreadable.   
Ranko recognized the expression from many lifetimes ago when she'd   
lived in the Amazon village and the resident lone wolf/nonconformist had   
been one of those most willing to befriend a mere male. (Which he'd been   
at the time.) And she was four years younger than him, so he hadn't had   
to consider her a potential fiancee at any point. Tigar was reacting to   
what she knew was a lie and lack of trust.   
"Amy, you must never have been formally introduced. This is Tigar,   
sometimes known as Rie Ga. She's the best tracker in the entire Amazon   
Valley. She can track a fly across a marsh or a cat across mountains.   
Her father was a mountain cat who fell into the Spring of Drowned Man.   
If she sees someone move, it doesn't matter if they're wearing a   
disguise or not, she can recognize them."   
Amy looked a little alarmed at that, and more so at Tigar's cold   
faced nod. She'd noticed the slightly odd appearance of the Amazon   
before: lightly pointed ears, elongated eyes, the slightly extended   
fangs. Now she knew why.   
Ranko swiveled her eyes and extended her senses enough to make   
certain they were alone, then wearily reached out and pickpocketed Amy's   
transformation pen long enough to show it to her before returning it.   
"So she knows that you're a Sailor Scout as surely as I do."   
Amy didn't quite know how to react to that.   
Ranko smiled, though her eyes were closed. "On the plus side, I have   
never seen nor heard of Tigar betraying any trust. Her friendship is to   
be valued."   
"You know me better than other you does." Tigar said after a moment.   
"Saw you move in fight. Say that Ranma but not Ranma. Tigar not   
understand."   
"You're not the only one," Ranko started to do an inventory and   
frowned when chi battery levels came up nil. Then she realized what had   
happened and winced. A doppelganger. No available chi and there was an   
Amazon battle imminent. Just great.   
"I expected to die today. Whoever, whatever, you are, you have my   
thanks.>" Tigar cocked her head to the side, regarding Amy. "We fight on   
same side. You want keep secret. Tigar has kept secret. Not need   
understand, just do."   
"Amy, Tigar, I need some information. What's the situation?"   
Tigar nodded, understanding the need. "Big fight. Amazons here   
because village Enforcer Comb and Champion Shampoo lose to thief who   
steal slaves. Not all Amazon agree with keep slave in first place. Tigar   
come. Make friend-like with slave many year ago. Others agree with Tigar   
also come. Other Ranma, friends, Tigar, Amy friend on this side. Elders,   
Comb, other side. Shampoo confused not sure what side she on.   
"Tigar not happy. Tigar sister on other side of battle."   
"Sugar?" Ranma winced "I'm sorry you'll have to face your sister in   
battle."   
"Not worry. She die when you attack." Tigar sat back. "Tigar thank   
Ranma again."   
"I don't understand," Amy put in, glancing back and forth between   
the two others.   
"There are two preferred ways in their culture for an Amazon to pass   
on to the next world, in battle or surrounded by grandkids." Ranma   
solemnly bowed her head towards Tigar. "Having to kill one who is direct   
blood is a great shame upon an Amazon."   
"We outnumbered, maybe two-one now. Was twenty to one before you   
attack." Tigar considered. "Both side have great magic. Both side have   
good fighters. Both side do what they think right."   
"How can it be right to do what they've done!" Amy started to get   
upset. "Whose side are you on?"   
Tigar turned her unblinking gaze to Amy for a moment. "Not say they   
right. Say they think they right. There difference. Differences too   
great blood be spilled. Whatever happen now, Amazons may no recover. Too   
many die."   
Tigar's gaze flicked back to Ranma. "Tigar think Cologne and Elders   
wrong. Not first time. That why Tigar on this side."   
Ranma sighed. On one side the Elders and the most veteran of the   
Amazons from the sound of it. The Sailor Scouts and some of the younger   
Amazons on the other side. Unless...   
"What about Lilac?"   
"Who Lilac?" Tigar looked to Amy who shook her head as well. "Not   
know Lilac. She Chinese?"   
Ranko held her aching head. "She's just this person I know. But if   
you don't know about her then she's not close enough to do us any good."   
Actually, the Amazon Healer Lilac was a fine soul with a down-to-earth   
sense of humor and one of the best foils for keeping the other elders   
from getting to uptight about things. But apparently she didn't exist in   
this universe.   
Amy shook her head. "Well, whoever you are, you've really stepped   
into a situation. We expect the remaining Amazons to attack at any   
moment..."   
The door slid open, revealing some boy Ranko didn't know. "Ranma's   
turned up missing, we think he might have gone to surrender himself to   
Cologne after all." 

*****   
The Universe... Oh, Fiddlesticks. Call It D (Or would I rather call it   
Fiddlesticks?) 

Ranma shimmered with magical power. Okay, his chi stuff was offline.   
That made *alot* less difference with access to a high class font of   
magical energy to power the corresponding spells he'd learned so very   
long ago.   
Who would have expected that so obviously technological a world   
would have one of his favorite magical sources active? Man, it had been,   
what? He couldn't even remember how many lives since he'd had access to   
*this* school of magic.   
Dropping Flame Arrows and Elmikion Lances and Freeze bolts on these   
things had been useless, and something told Ranma that time was getting   
close to the wire.   
The flight spell carried him over to a cleared section of beach   
where some soldiers were scattering. If it was a UN force that was going   
to detonate some kind of nuke here to stop this enemy, then he wanted to   
get it across as fast as possible that that enemy was already being   
dealt with.   
Ranma landed in a circle of soldiers in uniform to be as obvious as   
possible to them, then cupped his hands below himself and began to draw   
power. The effect was to cloak him in a rainbow field almost   
immediately, bubbling with little motes almost like a background of   
carbonated soda.   
He took aim at one of the creatures and began chanting. 

*   
"Darkness beyond the twilight   
In crimson blood that flows. 

(He could see that one of the officers had pulled out a field radio and   
was shouting into it. Good. Let them be amazed, let them be curious, but   
let them CALL OFF THAT   
STRIKE!) 

Buried in the stream of time   
It's where your power grows. 

(Ranma's hair was lifted straight up into the air, waving in the tide of   
energy he'd created, even as his body began to float off the ground with   
the force of what he was preparing.) 

I pledge myself to conquer   
All the foes who stand   
Against the mighty gift bestowed   
In my unworthy hand. 

(Ranma brought his cupped hands back and between them formed a ball of   
crackling energy, orange lightning zigging all over his form as he   
brought around the attack, calling out the final words of the spell.) 

DRAGON SLAVE!!!"   
* 

A beam of orange, multifracted light sprang forth from Ranma's   
extended fingers, shooting off to impact on the nearer of the two, um...   
whatever those big ugly things were. The enemy.   
The most powerful attack in that style of magic struck the creature   
in the chest and exploded, producing a blast and a fireball equal to   
that of a nuclear weapon.   
Except different from a nuke in many fundamental, important ways.   
And besides, he'd aimed the force so that the creature's own body would   
shield the dojo and the area around it.   
Hmm, the creature was crisped but not fried. On anything less he'd   
expect it to die from its wounds, but he could already see that that   
wasn't going to happen. Still, he had a few minutes, maybe even a few   
hours, to take out the other. And then he could finish off this one.   
Except that the other creature was charging him with bullet-like   
speed. He'd never have a chance to cast such a long spell again.   
But what kind of techniques could he use with a natural chi of   
practically zero?   
Silently blessing Miss Hinako for her part in his life (and the   
reminder of what a person with almost-unviable life energy could do in a   
fight) he brought out a coin and pointed it toward the charging   
creature.   
"Happo Five-Yen Collection!"   
Energy began to pour from the creature into him, momentarily   
stopping its advance in shock. The energy began flowing freely, proving   
that his low-chi state matched Hinako's metabolism rather nicely.   
Actually, there was too much energy flowing in. He had to find a way   
to burn off some excess soon because otherwise he was going to burst.   
Grabbing more deeply into his bag of tricks, Ranma made use of one of   
Happosai's old bluffs and inflated it into something a little more   
dangerous.   
Soldiers scattered screaming when Ranma suddenly started expanding   
to 300 feet tall.   
There was no way he'd bleed the creature dry, as he'd at first   
intended (giants had particularly low chi, no one could tell why). But   
when it swung at him Ranma caught the blow in one hand.   
This was now more a battle of physical equals, and would remain so   
as long as Ranma could keep siphoning off its energy to feed his own chi   
powers. He blocked its punches and kicked it off into the deep surf.   
Then discovered that he had a second as it was laboring in its recovery. 

Never one to turn down an ally in a pinch, he jumped out into the   
water (using stolen energy to heat the water around his legs and avoid a   
change) and hauled on the leg of the monster robot that had been lodged   
head-first in the bottom. His muscles bulged with augmented strength and   
the red armored mecha came free. Then Ranma was off and fighting the   
organic thing again.   
He noted, out of the corner of his eye, that the red robot was not   
moving. Oh well. Maybe the pilot was knocked out or something.   
The creature he'd been fighting came at him with energy raging   
around it.   
Oh, man. This was too easy!   
Ranma fell back before it, no longer launching any more offensive   
moves. The creature followed. He almost laughed. Twelve seconds later   
he'd completed the spiral and struck the thing with a cold-charged fist,   
shouting.   
"Rising Dragon Ascension!"   
After flying many miles into the air being torn at by its own power   
turned back upon it, the creature fell to a huddled lump beside the   
incapacitated form of its twin.   
Ranko had no leisure to appreciate this as she was, at the time,   
swimming back to shore, having shrunk to human size rather abruptly when   
the whirlwind attack had sucked his opponent and source of power away   
from him, dunking him and reverting him to female.   
Ryoko had compassion on her and flew down from her self-selected   
cheering section to retrieve Ranko from the sea.   
When they landed Ucchan was waiting with a kettle of hot water and,   
laughing, Ranma gave her a glad kiss.   
This was, unfortunately, too familiar a kind of stimulus for a   
certain person.   
"RAAANNMAAA!!!" Akane grabbed the nearest concrete lawn ornament and   
began hefting it back for a swing.   
An orange laser bolt passed by over her head.   
The lawn statue dissolved into dust that rained down over Akane's   
hair and shoulders. She looked up to see Ryoko posing with another   
energy globe around her hand. Ayeka stepped past the posturing demon,   
her own features dangerously hardening.   
"Perhaps I should mention. Ranma is under the Royal protection of   
Jurai. Any who would strike at him are infringing on that, and we have   
quite a few starships I'd be willing to dispatch to track the villain   
down."   
"But I was just... I was... I was only..." Akane stammered.   
"Only what, Akane?" Ranma replied in far too reasonable a tone.   
"Only going to bludgeon me with a blunt instrument capable of crushing   
skulls? Only going to act in unthinking rage at a violence level that   
*CAN* and *HAS* killed me?"   
Ranma suddenly paused as a thought stuck him. His teeth unclenched   
and he blinked in surprise. "Or was it something deeper, Akane? Was it   
simply administering just and a deserved punishment to someone who   
*dared* question your superiority? That's it, isn't it? Or am I   
mistaken?"   
Most of that whizzed by Akane like a bullet train, but she caught   
some parts. Her fists clenched in renewed fury. "Are you making fun of   
me?"   
His eyes brightened. His face broke open into a kind smile.   
Ranma turned to address the crowd. "Please, by the love you bear for   
me, and I in turn hold for you, do not interrupt what I am about to do.   
What in a way I have to do." Seeing their reluctant obedience, he calmly   
took Akane by the hand and led her to a separate room, closing the door. 

Ranma took Akane's chin in his hand and look her gently, even fondly   
in the eye. "Akane, thank you. After centuries of trying, I feel I can   
finally understand you."   
Understand her? What was he *talking* about? Wasn't he just teasing   
her? Why was he being so nice *now* if...   
Oh? Could he?   
Akane's eyes grew wet with tears of joy as she raised her arms to   
hug him. "Ran..."   
He hit a few of her pressure points and her arms went slack, then he   
carried her not unkindly to a chair before the rest of her went as limp   
as a set of empty pajamas. Then the pigtailed martial artist crouched   
down beside her to look in her eyes.   
"Akane, you are not going to like what I am going to say. But then,   
we often grow the most from the things that hurt, so I'm going to do it   
anyway and hope you profit from it. I'll say my apology beforehand: I am   
sorry for the pain I am about to cause you. I am going to tell you the   
truth, Akane. And there is nothing more miserable for those who are   
unprepared to hear it."   
He leaned close to her, actually giving off an aura of affection.   
"Akane. After all this time of knowing you I can finally, truly,   
understand. You are absolutely, completely, and totally self-absorbed."   
He leaned back, allowing her space but maintaining soft and even   
affectionate eye contact. "That explains everything: Your cooking,   
swimming, why you never feel a need to control your temper,   
*everything*! You expect things merely because you feel you have a right   
to them, like you ought to be able to cook merely because others can, or   
sew because you feel like it. You expect to go from merely wanting to do   
it to being an expert at it. You just have no concept of the stages   
required to EARN things, and what ends up happening is that you are   
absolutely abysmal at doing anything that cannot be bludgeoned into   
submission."   
He sighed softly. "And our engagement. Your family *gave* it to you.   
I wonder how much else they gave you without your having to do a thing   
to deserve it? Kasumi cooked for you and cleaned up after you and I   
*know* she's always willing to support you or comfort you when you   
cried. And yet you ignored her or forgot your promises to her and she   
was too sweet to take it personally. Nabiki has struggled hard to get   
the things she has, and I know also that she has had many sleepless   
nights over the problems in her family. Problems you couldn't be   
bothered with... many of which you'd even caused... carelessly or   
inadvertently, it doesn't matter which.   
"How much was freely given to you that you neither had to deserve   
nor look after for fear of losing?"   
Ranma cocked his head and radiated concern. "Think about it, Akane.   
When have you ever had to deal with the consequences of anything you   
did? You could freely destroy anything you saw and one of your sisters   
was always there fixing up after you. In a word, you are spoiled."   
He sighed as if in relief.   
"I should have seen this so long ago. You don't have regard for   
*anything*. You'd wreck your room and destroy everything in it over a   
petty spat. You'd throw, crush, or bust anything you could see and   
someone else was always there making it better and seeking a replacement   
so no one would notice the loss. Your father would literally kill   
himself in rage should anything threaten you, and you didn't even really   
respect him for that."   
He shook his head sadly. "Everyone else was so deeply set in   
recovering from the tragedy of their mothers loss that they left you   
completely uncontrolled. And now you've grown weary of the bounds of   
your den and are venturing forth into the world expecting everything to   
be the same. Everything has to cater to Akane. You expect to be a great   
cook automatically merely because you *want* to be. The early stages of   
recipe preparation and learning the basics never occur to you, not only   
because you aren't used to struggling for anything you want, but because   
you want everyone else to acknowledge your superiority right from the   
start. It's a status thing. There are image points to be gained by being   
a good cook, and so you are going to force everyone to acknowledge you   
as the best of them all."   
There was no anger or animosity in Ranma's eyes as he was talking.   
He was even smiling gently. This was an explanation, not an accusation.   
He was also figuring things out for himself at last.   
"If you loved to cook you would learn the details, there would be no   
avoiding it. Similarly with swimming or sewing or any other domestic   
task. The concept of learning to do them right doesn't even cross your   
mind. Anything you want you feel is yours by right and anything that   
resists must be forced, anything that threatens that has to be defeated.   
Your way must be right because it is your way, the only problem is   
getting others to acknowledge that.   
"But I'm sorry, Akane. Life does not work like that."   
Ranma continued to smile softly and sighed with great relief. "And   
that explains also why you hate me. Do you think hate is too strong a   
word? I don't. It fits. It follows what your actions are. But really,   
here I entered into your world and I was better than you at something.   
That was pretty much what the crux of it was. It kept returning to that   
one point. Akane, I have *died* at your hands because you were unwilling   
to accept that I was better at something you thought you were good at.   
That's pretty unfair."   
He rose and kissed her on the forehead. "I want to thank you, Akane.   
You have unwittingly helped me learn many things. But I'm sorry your   
example had to be a bad one. You taught me what gratitude was by not   
having any, the same way that Genma taught me honor. In a similar vein   
you've taught me many things. I want to thank you for that. But that   
doesn't mean that I want to associate with you any more."   
He smiled down at her, standing up. "You and Genma have been the   
greatest and the most difficult obstacles I've ever had to face. But I   
have finally learned all I can from you, and you have nothing more to   
teach me. Goodbye, Akane. For a thousand years my life has centered   
around you like a moth returning to flirt with a candle flame. But no   
more. I have finally learned all I can from you. I am scorched and   
wounded, but I am also serene and at peace. You have nothing more to   
teach me." He bent again and kissed her one last time on her forehead.   
"I am now a graduate of *this* school of hard knocks. Take care of   
yourself. I don't hate you. I never could. But you have a great deal of   
learning to do and you must do it over wretched and parched ground that   
*I* have already crossed. I cannot and do not wish to go there with you.   
Remember: the one thing that kept drawing me back to you over and over   
again was your potential, and I've been there watching as you've wasted   
it time and time again over hundreds of different opportunities. Don't   
let habit get to you this time."   
Ranma turned and walked away, without looking back. He paused at the   
door. "The ability to speak and move will return to you in about an   
hour. Please make use of the time to think on what I've said." He gave a   
somewhat weary chuckle. "It actually hurts less to admit to flaws and to   
fix them, than to live trying to deny them, which is what you've been   
doing."   
Behind him rivers of tears were running down both of Akane's cheeks. 

Ranma opened the sliding door out and a dozen people fell in on his   
feet. 

*****   
Random 7, Bounce Universe 

Ranko had known that in any fight after that first one the Amazons   
would concentrate on her, so she'd planned for it. She had chosen a   
bodyguard group as best she was able and focused the *real* plan on a   
flanking party that would have been able to retrieve Ranma.   
It would have worked, too. Except that the regular Nerima residents   
had gotten involved.   
Ryoga had shown up at the worst possible time, screaming about Ranma   
finishing his fight with him. As the battle developed it became clear   
that Ryoga wasn't on any side, only bashing everyone he could see in his   
way to get to Ranma. Then the siblings Kuno had arrived and what was   
left of careful planning had gone the way of the dodo (which Ranko had   
owned one once and been rather fond of).   
Ryoga's charge had been ended when he'd struck Nodoka (the chief of the   
rescue party). He'd lost at least one eye, maybe both, when Nabiki had   
gone into her Jusenkyo-cursed saber-tooth tiger form and bitten his face   
as he stood staring at the former girl in shock.   
The miracle was that Ryoga had survived it. In this world he didn't   
have the Breaking Point training. But no one would ever again admire   
this Lost Boy for his looks.   
Ranko sighed, cold pavement at her back as she held both hands to   
the deep, arterial cut in her chest. After Sailor Moon had dusted the   
demon the Amazons had summoned they had beaten the Sailor Scout badly.   
She'd recover, but Ranko was rather sad because at this moment with her   
blood pooling on the street beneath her she was rather a bit beyond any   
earthly medicine.   
The battle having raged its last, rain began to fall as the war   
parties separated with both just beginning to count their lost. There   
was no hope for her, Ranko knew it, but she up looked and spoke to the   
one who had come in curiosity to stand over her.   
"Kodachi-sama, you are Ranma's best and only hope of freedom now.   
He'll need you. Go to him, only know that the Amazons are as skilled in   
stealth as you. Please rescue him, for I no longer can."   
The Kuno girl silently nodded.   
Ranko felt another presence appear at her side. It was Kuno, and it   
had to be clear even to him that sweeping her up in his arms would kill   
Ranko instantly. The poor fool. It really wasn't all that difficult to   
cure his mind, but this experience would probably make him worse instead   
of better. All he really needed was a massive influx of love. In spite   
of appearances his mind was strong enough to cure itself if it had that.   
But Ranko had never felt anything of the kind for him.   
Taking as deep a breath as she was able, Ranko did the bravest thing   
she had done in a long time, and told the kindest lie she had ever given   
voice to.   
Seeing as how the chi that formed her life was unraveling and   
dissipating anyway, she made use of a few of the escaping strands and   
soft music began to play over the stunned battlefield. Ranko reached up   
and gently grasped Tatewaki's hand, while her head was softly cradled by   
him.   
For the first time in a very long while her astonishing voice   
conveyed only a girl both sweet and vulnerable, knowing that these   
breaths were her last, being brave for someone in spite of her pain.   
The love she feigned was a lie so beautiful it scarcely felt bad to   
sing it.   
* 

"Don't you fret, my dear Tate-chan   
I don't feel any pain.   
A little fall of rain   
can hardly hurt me now. 

You're here. That's all I need to know. 

And you will keep me safe.   
And you will keep me close.   
And rain, will make the flowers grow." 

(Tears tracked Tatewaki's face like never before. Again, his classical   
education showed as he recalled the words of the play and sang   
passionately, softly in reply). 

"But you will live, pigtailed one... Dear God Above!   
If I could close your wounds with words of love." 

(Ranko stroked his hand, feeling very much at peace, and no guilt at all   
from lying this one time.)   
"Just hold me now,   
and let it be.   
Shelter me, comfort me..." 

(Tatewaki's voice had gained strength in spite of his obvious anguish.)   
"You would live, a hundred years, if I could show you how.   
I won't desert you now." 

(Ranko could feel her life force slipping further from her, and sang on   
anyway. There was a good deed still to be sung in these last few   
moments. The healing to this man was not yet to where she would call it   
done.) 

"Rain can't hurt me now. 

This rain, will wash away what's past.   
And you will keep me safe,   
And you will keep me close   
I'll sleep in your embrace at last. 

The rain that brings you here is Heaven-blessed.   
The sky's beginning to clear, and I'm at rest. 

A breath away, from where you are.   
I've come home, from so far... 

Don't you fret, my dear Tate-chan   
I don't feel any pain.   
A little fall of rain   
can hardly hurt me now." 

(Tatewaki's choked whisper.)   
"I'm here." 

(Blue Ranko)   
"That's all I need to know. 

And you will keep me safe.   
And you will keep me close.   
And rain, will make the flowers..... 

..... 

..... 

....."   


(Kuno lay Ranko's head down, singing her last word with inexpressible   
agony, and yet also a sense of sweet belonging.) 

"Grow...." 

*   
Both sides of the battle had turned from tending their own wounds   
for the display of her last moments. And as the final breath had softly   
fled Blue Ranko's body a wave of indescribable loss swept all present.   
Tatewaki, kneeling beside her, took Ranko's still hand from his own   
and lay it across her breast, covering it with both his own as he took a   
long, shuddering gasp of grief.   
Tiny, sparkling motes of light wisped around Ranko's still form, and   
then the redhead faded away, leaving no body behind. Instead, in the   
pavement splashed by rain, tiny buds began to grow in a circle yards in   
diameter, centered around Tatewaki.   
Softly, ghostly, almost unnoticeable, faint notes could be heard   
through the silence stretched over the field of battle as the former   
combatants stood watching the flowers gently cover almost an acre.   
* 

"Do you hear the people sing?   
Lost in the valley of the night. 

(For those who were listening, and none weren't, the merest flickering   
of images could be seen out of the corners of their eyes.) 

It is the music of a people   
Who are climbing to the light. 

(Softly, a clear tone could be heard, merely a steady pulse that could   
be mistaken for a drumming heartbeat.) 

For the wretched of the Earth   
there is a flame that never dies.   
Even the darkest night will end   
and the sun will rise! 

(To the amazement of all present, hundreds and hundreds of images   
appeared, softly glowing as they had before. Stepping forward with   
joined hands the specters sang.) 

We will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord   
We will walk behind the plowshare, we will put away the sword.   
The chains will be broken and all men will have their reward! 

(Ramna's phantoms all began to shine with a bright, brilliant light,   
clearly visible through the rain as now their throng grew to a thousand   
strong.) 

Will you join in our crusade?   
Who will be strong and stand with me?   
Somewhere beyond the barricade   
is there a world you long to see? 

Do you hear the people sing?   
Say do you hear the distant drums?   
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes! 

(From out past a Ranma in a RDF flight suit, standing at the foot of his   
veritech, came a simple Ranko, blue shirted and smiling. Pressing out   
before the throng she led them all in a single, united chorus singing to   
her comrades below.) 

Will you join in our crusade?   
Who will be strong and stand with me?   
Somewhere beyond the barricade   
is there a world you long to see? 

Do you hear the people sing?   
Say do you hear the distant drums?   
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!" 

*   
All the images faded on their last, triumphant note, leaving only   
the last behind. Hovering in the air, and glowing softly, bearing no   
trace of the wounds that had felled her, Ranko remained a moment longer   
and spoke.   
"Great-Grandmother," her eyes first fell on Cologne. "I loved you as   
my own dear parent. I have lived an Amazon, and died an Amazon. I can   
hope that makes you happy. Please let Shampoo know that Perfume is proud   
of her daughter."   
Her eyes next fell on her own mother. "Mother, do forgive me. I did   
not give you a chance to know me, but I loved you as a daughter should.   
Do take care of yourself, and my brother."   
Next they fell on Tatewaki, and acquired a smirk. "Tate-chan, if you   
do anything stupid from here on I shall be very disappointed in you."   
Her eyes twinkled. "And I would regard not finding a nice girl and   
getting married as very stupid. Do not torment my brother, he is under a   
curse to bear my face and form under some circumstances. See that he   
doesn't suffer too much for it."   
They last fell on the native Ranma of this universe. "Brother," she   
termed him. "I could tell you of any number of your faults, but if I did   
you'd ruin yourself with grief over them. All I can say is: Be wise.   
Listen to those around you, even if you don't do as they say always. At   
least learn from them. I would *not* listen to your father no matter   
what he says. But you would be surprised at what you can learn from   
others."   
Ranko took a last breath as she seemed to fade away. "I love you   
all. Be kind to each other...."   
In the silence that followed there was only the sound of rain,   
masking many tears, until Cologne finally, ritualistically, hawked and   
spat.   
"Thistle was a madwoman for inviting this fight upon us all, and I a   
fool for permitting her to do it."   
Hopping down to the ground off her cane, Cologne trudged the mud   
across the field and came to Nodoka, sitting with broken legs in a   
puddle. From there Cologne turned back and addressed her assembled   
Amazons.   
"From this time forth it is against our law to take or keep slaves   
in our tribe. Let that which was passed in anger so long ago die the   
death it has brought us. And..." it was impossible to suspect the old   
crone of crying, yet cry she did, the rain masking her tears.   
"It is decreed that the name of Ranko shall always live on among us.   
Shampoo, your first girl-child will bear that name."   
Cologne then looked over at the stunned Mrs. Saotome. With a visible   
tremor, Cologne extended her staff, handing it over to the woman. "Now   
dear, let us do what your daughter had asked us to do in the first   
place. As leader of our tribe I pass that burden on to you, who spawned   
a daughter I've never seen the like. Let's get this resolved before   
*all* our clans fall to outside threat, and leave this field of battle   
before we spill more of the blood of our children over it."   
Swallowing deeply, Nodoka accepted the staff.   


To Be Continued... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

I would like to dedicate this section to my own son, Timothy, who   
lived exactly 17 days.   
My own little Tiny Tim.   


Songs were from Les Mis, 'cept for the pirate one. 


	17. 17

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Seventeen   
Wild Horse to Wild Card 

by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber   


A Lunatic Disclaimer Which Has No Place In The Actual World: 

Mine! MINE!!! All Mine! He he he he he! I'm rich! I'm wealthy!   
Everything belongs to me!!! 

The author and none of his alternate personalities assume   
responsibility for the preceding rant. It was performed by a black duck   
who was in the act of wrapping himself around a large gemstone. 

************************************************ 

Hi!   
A word about my medium here. Wars are confusing enough in their own   
right. Time travel is mind bending by its very nature, and universe   
hopping has been known to drive more than one person mad.   
Aren't you lucky that Mirrors is so remarkably clear and comprehensible   
considering what genre it works in? 

*****   
The Netherworld. 

Mara frowned. Hmm, no. This was NOT going the way she'd planned. As   
mixed as the goddesses' attempts were, her prediction daemon assured her   
they'd bumped the odds of the boy surviving to 63%. Deciding it was okay   
to break one more rule, Mara did what she could to cause a little   
temporal altercation of her own to maybe fix this trend toward goodness. 

There was no way *she* was going to sing Handel's Messiah! 

*****   
The Netherworld, Past 

In front of a large crowd of demons, a timelord had just found out that   
his enemy had never arrived and was becoming extremely upset. As Ryoga   
Hibiki raged at the demons a very small gremlin snuck behind him and did   
what gremlins normally do, this time to the lock on the door of the   
timelord's Tardis.   
Dr. Where failed to notice the immediate change in the attitude of   
those demons he was confronting. The number of fanged grins had   
mysteriously multiplied. Growing increasingly enraged, Ryoga continued   
screaming at the lead demon. "What do you mean he's not here!"   
Said demon resumed picking his teeth with a shard of a human thigh   
bone. "Look, this is Torment, not Records." The demon grinned nastily.   
"All we know is that someone made an appointment to send a human down   
here to be worked over, and you're the first to arrive."   
The significance of that statement somehow missed Ryoga, who mused. "My 

calculations were perfect. There was no WAY that Ranma could've..."   
Realization struck as he remembered that the forces of divine   
intervention were at work here.   
"Could other forces redirect my transmissions to you?" He thundered at   
the crowd of demons as they began to creep forward around him.   
"Most certainly." Agreed the leader of them, trying to grin in an   
ingratiating way and ending up simply showing alot of teeth.   
The timelord struck an unconcerned pose, thinking aloud. "Well, these   
demons are too stupid to lie convincingly. And there's no WAY *Ranma*   
could've gotten free of here, I didn't pick one of the lowest levels for   
nothing. Maybe... HEY!!!" He screamed in rage at the minor demon that   
had just poked him in the thigh with its pitchfork.   
The demon, despite being one of the more cowardly types, did nothing   
but grin back at him.   
It suddenly struck Ryoga that he was a good sixty yards from his Tardis   
and surrounded completely on all sides by a crowd of demons he'd picked   
specifically as being rough enough to take down Ranma.   
He tried to ignore the blood trickling down his thigh. "Yeah, well. I   
shall go and investigate this matter." He tried to reply loftily.   
Reality seemed to split. In one version, that seemed to fade away, the   
timelord started to limp toward his Tardis and was quickly mobbed by the   
demons. That version battled its way through the horrible ranks on the   
way to his machine only to discover the door unable to open, and with a   
despairing cry was hauled off to fulfill the centuries of torment he'd   
signed Ranma up for.   
Divine Justice could be amusing in its irony.   
A second copy wisped into being and seemed to grow stronger with the   
passing seconds as the first faded away. The only addition to this one   
was that a female demon in ratty clothes warped in next to the Tardis   
and unspelled the gremlin's work on the lock.   
Clothes ripped and shredded, bleeding gouts from his raggedly torn   
muscles, Dr. Where reached his Tardis and the lock opened. Slipping   
inside, he slammed the door shut on the crowd of demons outside and   
moments later the time travel device faded away.   
Mara smiled from within the milling crowd of disappointed infernals.   
She had confidence in this tool's ability to disrupt things.   
"A port a potty? What kind of sorcerer travels in a port a potty?" One   
of the angry demons beside her groused.   
A larger demon swatted it, at the same time nursing the umbrella wound   
on its own forehead. "One powerful enough not to care who giggles at   
it." The larger replied.   
The crowd ran off to torment the gremlin who'd failed in its job. 

As he sped through the timestream, the man known as Ryoga Hibiki fumed   
as he inserted himself into the autodoc and considered this latest   
setback to what was supposed to have been a simple snatch and grab   
operation.   
It hadn't helped that on his first attempt he'd been so preoccupied   
that he'd put himself into the auto-CHEF by mistake. Not only was he   
going to have to repair the butchering attachments, but the meat   
tenderizer was going to take forever to clean out of his wounds.   
He was, by now, becoming a tad upset at luck like this repeating   
itself.   
"I need an edge," he realized, wincing as the autodoc found it   
necessary to remove a swatch of skin where a demonic corrosive still   
worked. "I keep ignoring the fact that this Ranma has allies, and that   
while I can handle HIM, his friends could well stop me all over again."   
Dr. Where grinned, showing both his fangs. "What I need... is Ranma. I   
need a copy of him to use as my OWN ally! None of his friends would want   
to kill ONE Ranma to save another!" He reveled in the thought of his   
discovery, and, as the smell of the meat tenderizer penetrated his   
nostrils, he found himself remembering a certain young boy covered in   
slabs of meat, being tossed into a cage full of lions.   
"Yeah!" Ryoga smiled nastily. "I need a Ranma who'll trust ME! One that   
I can train to help me take down the REAL Ranma!" Ryoga began to laugh   
hysterically, growing higher and higher in pitch in fine Takahashi   
'Rival with Plan' style as he used his remotes to set course toward his   
destination. 

Sitting in another part of the timestream, Loki noticed what was *sure*   
to be an amusing attempt foiled by divine intervention, and made an   
arrangement of his own. Slipping into the cages a day or two before   
disguised as a cage cleaner, he fitted each of the great cats Genma   
would be using with amulets of his own devising; augmenting the strength   
and power of the felines by a hundredfold.   
Whatever god showed up to thwart Dr. Where was in for a nasty surprise,   
which is all that Loki wanted. A trap to murder yet another of his   
divine brothers without the blame falling directly on himself.   
He sat back to watch the fun. 

*****   
Universe C, Tokyo Zoo (Moments after Orchid had been forcibly ejected) 

Materializing next to a payphone, the tardis that appeared was in   
considerably better shape than the one that had left only moments   
earlier. The battered and much abused door had been replaced with a   
reinforced copy, and a pit stop at headquarters had let the damage and   
smell inside be completely eradicated.   
Praying that no one broke into it this time, and not realizing how   
hypocritical that was - after all, it was the person people normally   
prayed *to* opposing him in this, Dr. Where left his machine behind and   
headed back toward the great cat feeding area. He manipulated a tiny   
band on his collar and between one step and the next his form shifted   
into an elaborate holographic disguise of a young woman dressed in an   
exotic, new age bodysuit, her medium length hair held back out of her   
eyes by a familiar yellow bandana.   
"I HATE this!" The disguised Ryoga grumbled. "Ranma, if it wasn't for   
the psyche profiles being almost certain you'd trust a woman sooner than   
you would trust a man I'd make you PAY for this!" The features of the   
exotically dressed young woman smiled nastily. "Heh. I'll make you pay   
anyway." The disguised form flexed her fingers to crack the knuckles in   
them, making doubly sure that she carried her combat parasol.   
She rounded a corner and came into view of the crowds in time to hear   
Genma call out. "Son. Learn the dreaded Cat Fist technique and make your   
father proud!" then the wailing of a terrified child being tossed into   
the air. 

*****   
Heaven 

A valkyrie whose job it was to stand guard in the operation's center of   
Yggdrassil, the World Tree system, noticed the alert the moment it was   
flashed. She called out to the deity stationed with her.   
"A Class-One Infernal Temporal Adjustment is in progress." The Valkyrie   
focused more closely on her display. "The power was demonic in origin   
and took effect on level 664, Infernal plane. We are tracking Helspawn!" 

Before the divine being could respond the phone rang. No, repeat that.   
*THE* phone rang. The phone that only one personage in the multiverse   
could call in on. The minor deity swiftly answered it.   
Moments later the phone was slammed down and the deity flew to her   
feet, speaking clearly and urgently across the chamber.   
"Father commands that we react to this as the start of Ragnorak! All   
resources are to be made available AT ONCE!"   
Branches and vines retracted from around the clear, crystal button that   
no one had ever touched. The valkyrie's hand slapped down upon it   
forcibly. 

Heimdal's pager went off and he set down his mug to check the code.   
Instantly he flew to his feet, upsetting the contents of the table all   
over his dining companions. He didn't even care to notice, hauling the   
horn from his belt he lifted it to his lips and issued forth a massive   
clarion call.   
Every being everywhere allied with Heaven heard and began to scramble   
for their weapons. Valkyries issued by the millions from their homes and   
hangouts. Those in Heaven streamed by tens and by hundreds of thousands   
from their beds and parklands to snatch up swords and weapons, garbing   
themselves in glistening silver armor and racing for their winged steeds   
to fly out of the gates in millions. Tens of thousands of valkyries on   
assignments on Earth dropped whatever it was they were doing, from   
observing battlefields to delivering babies, and returned to Heaven for   
the call.   
Divine beings scattered from their myriad activities and feverishly   
began arming themselves for war.   
On the plains below the great mansions of Heaven, stretched out beyond   
any conceivable horizon, the call seemed to hang in the air, momentarily   
paralyzing the spirits of fallen heroes that the valkyries had been   
gathering for millennia. The sounds of their practice stilled, and they   
stood for a moment in wonder before separating and streaming in good   
order toward their assigned goals.   
This war... preparing for it had been their very existence for   
thousands of years. They were ready for it. Uncountable throngs mustered   
in force to wage mighty battle against the frost giants and their   
allies, more uncountable numbers assembled to take the battle to the   
fire giants and theirs. 

*****   
Universe B 

Rae started out of a peaceful sleep. Ranma was in trouble. Still in her   
pajamas she reached for her transformation pen. 

Darien jolted out of sleep. Sailor Moon was in danger! He found himself   
on his balcony in tuxedo and mask before he was even aware of the   
peculiarities of the feeling.   
It wasn't Sailor Moon. So then who? Without pausing to question, he   
began to follow where the feeling led. He would find out. 

Luna and Artemis awoke as if their tails were on fire, bringing a   
certain pair of princesses from the Moon and Venus awake in record time.   
In another part of town a blue-haired girl's mini supercomputer snapped   
open at her bedside and began a trilling warning. 

Lita got a telephone call. 

Yohko and Ayohko both woke up in separate parts of town knowing in   
precise detail *exactly* how and where to find the right and perfect guy   
for them. 

Ukyo's Iczelion artificially intelligent armor was shaking her out of   
her plush bed near Ranma's room in the Saotome mansion. 

Elsewhere a certain Cat Girl became acutely aware that the man her   
creator had built her to protect, Ranma Saotome, her creator's son, had   
just gotten into lethal trouble again... and that this time he hadn't   
left her any instructions about not helping out. 

007 got a wake-up from his television set, broadcasting a set of   
instructions he dared not ignore. 

A certain secretary by the name of Miss Honey was on her way to work   
when a lightning bolt came out clear sky and inscribed a compelling and   
informative, though brief, message on the sidewalk right at her feet. 

Kasumi got up to cook breakfast for everyone. 

Battle alarms lit the command chamber below the basements of the   
Saotome Estate. Alerts and beacons lit the war screens to the extent   
that the duty officer on watch held no compunction against ordering a   
full and immediate launch.   
In minutes an unrehearsed battle plan was going into effect, everyone   
working seamlessly together despite many of the peculiararities of the   
situation. High-tech battlesuits cradling Sailor Scouts in their arms   
were loaded into the bays of veritech bombers. Artillery units were   
rolled into place and sent off in their transports even as females in   
armor, costume, transformed state and otherwise were arriving and fit   
into the battle plans with eerie ease.   
One quarter hour had not yet passed when the first salvo of shells from   
megaton nuclear field howitzers began obliterating the defenses of a   
certain point in the arctic whose location had miraculously appeared on   
all relevant computer systems. 

When the exterior defenses of that place had been annihilated a   
combined volley from the Robotech Picket Fleet left behind by Admiral   
Lisa Saotome punctured the ceiling of the structure beneath.   
Veritechs screamed into the hole, transforming as they went and   
suddenly finding themselves enormously grateful for the Illusion   
Detectors Skuld had built and added to their sensor suites. Brutes and   
uglies were startled out of their crannies by veritechs blasting away   
with hyper-velocity 55mm rounds on full-auto.   
The impetus of the spearhead group lasted just long enough to eject   
dozens of power armors from the veritech bombers.   
The suits of powered armor rained down in clouds. Their escorts   
brutalized the ground beneath them with rockets and autogun fire. In the   
core of each group a Sailor Scout was carried safely until the Robotech   
team leader of the powersuits elected she was within range of target.   
With little or no warning the powersuited groups blasted past servants   
of the negaforce too bewildered and caught by surprise to react with any   
effect. As the resistance built and the groups began to slow, three of   
the team leaders released their formidable female cargoes and hunkered   
down to preserve rally points as two demon huntresses and one very   
anxious to help Nuku Nuku lit into the dark servitors with fury and   
skill unknown in anything not fighting to have Ranma in her life.   
A pair of doors were brought down by explosions and recognition sensors   
trilled. Five fully rested and battle capable Sailor Scouts were   
delivered right to the heart of the threat while explosions and fighting   
elsewhere continued to reduce the unprepared dark forces to shreds.   
Blue Iczelion teleported into place alongside the Sailors. She was   
joined by Purple and Green Iczelions.   
Sitting on her throne, Queen Beryl had wet herself. 

In Nerima, a man in tuxedo and mask had literally stumbled upon the   
hiding place of a hideous little gnome of a youma he'd fought with the   
Sailor Scouts once before. Along with it was a dirty old man in a white   
gi that Tuxedo Mask had caught once trying to steal Serena's underwear.   
Glimmering on top of a stack of similar garments in a pile between the   
two was a sheer pair of white cotton panties with a yellow moon crescent   
on the front.   
Recalling the advice of Sailor Earth, Tuxedo Mask proceeded to pin both   
men to the ground with thrown roses before he began his attack. 

Belldandy concluded wrapping enough wards and protections around the   
Saotome estate that nothing short of an alpha monster like the Fenris   
wolf or Surtur, leader of the fire giants, was even going to get close. 

A certain spy finished up with a task that would bring about the fall   
of a few global crime forces and international communism. 

Cutey Honey attacked her foes with renewed hope, as she finally knew   
how they might be destroyed for good.   
She was a little puzzled by these veritechs and power armors appearing   
to fight alongside her, though. 

Tatewaki Kuno looked toward the sky and pronounced. "The vengeance of   
Heaven is slow but sure..." 

*****   
Universe A 

Kodachi arose from below her sheets. She was wearing the sheerest of   
silk gowns, touches of ruffle and lace around the cuffs fluttering   
slightly in the light breeze that reached in through the open window to   
play with her hair.   
There was something amiss. Something had happened to Ranma.   
Changing from panties and nightgown to her combat leotard, Kodachi   
armed herself with an array of lethal weapons. If that Tendo hussy had   
struck his precious skull again she would lose her own!   
A real tear appeared at the corner of her eye. She was his precious   
Dachi-chan. He had told her so! Neither Heaven nor Earth could force her   
to relinquish him again! Well, perhaps that Nabiki character. But   
honestly, she'd thought all that safely buried. It was hardly fair for   
such a lowborn person to dredge up something like that! 

Superheroes of every type and description got alerts of every kind,   
most of them including pertinent details, proof, and floor plans of   
their enemy's lairs. 

*****   
Heaven 

Kami-sama, being the planner that he is, had organized a comparatively   
small group of Einheriar (the name given heroes honored and chosen from   
the ranks of the fallen by the valkyries) to respond to his summons and   
be ready to accept special assignment. They gathered, armed and   
purposeful, in the Great Hall and shortly He entered to address them.   
Kami-sama waved to the wall behind him and the length lit up with the   
face of Ryoga Hibiki in his role as Dr. Where. His voice carried to the   
furthest reaches of the room.   
"This is an enemy to the Heavens. He is a beast who cares little for   
the lives of my precious children and is a willing tool in our enemy's   
instigation of this war."   
Kami-sama's voice, while carrying, was low. "If this timelord was   
destroyed then there would be centuries of more of relative peace and a   
chance to win Ragnorak."   
No further comment was needed.   
One of the Einheriar leapt to a higher step and shouted to his fellows,   
beginning a chant while pointing to Ryoga's picture. "We're not safe   
until he's dead!"   
Dozens of others nodded, bearded faces grim as their weapons. "He's   
come stalking with no right!"   
Several hundred more agreed. "Set to sacrifice God's children to his   
monstrous appetite."   
"He'll wreck havoc on our timestream if we let him wander free."   
Many erupted in a thunderous roar at this last comment, and thousands   
of weapons were held aloft by as many hands. These were glorified   
reflections of the weapons that each of the Einheriar had most favored   
in life, and for the warriors there was a special bond with them. Spears   
ranging from a simple pilum to more ornate valkyrie models, halberds and   
axes, swords ranging from the simple gladius in the hand of one who fell   
to lions to sate a Roman Governor's urge for sport to elaborate, glowing   
longswords that added their own voices to the roar, even some martial   
arts weapons and a few modern firearms could be spotted in the crowd.   
As Kami-sama stepped from the podium one of his assistant gods leapt up   
onto it, assuming the assignment. Drawing his mighty sword Frey cried   
out to the warriors. "So it's time to take some action, boys. It's time   
to follow me!"   
The god of the elves leapt down among the heroes, inspiring them.   
"Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the   
shadows. It's a nightmare but it's one exciting ride."   
They were Norse in culture if not always in breeding. They worked into   
a good frenzy. Frey went on. "Say a prayer, then we're there, back among   
our mortal children where as one of them this evil creature hides!"   
The massive doors of this special chamber began to crank open behind   
Frey while he continued to inspire them. "He's a Beast! He's got fangs,   
razor sharp ones. Massive paws, killer claws for the feast. Hear him   
roar! See him foam! But we're not coming home `til he's dead! Good and   
dead! Let's kill the Beast!"   
Kami-sama stopped Thor from going to his battle with the Midgard   
Serpent, a battle which Thor was fated not to survive, and indicated for   
him to follow and go with Frey on this mission.   
Thor's objection was quickly stilled, and one of the Norns sent also.   
Frey was mounted on his chariot and shouting. "We'll rid the timestream   
of this Beast! Who's with me?"   
Cries of affirmative in the millions issued forth from this special   
force. They lifted their voices as one as they began to issue forth to   
do battle in the tens of billions. (Which, when compared to the truly   
uncountable forces that went against the frost and fire giants, was   
still comparatively small.)   
"Bring your knives, risk your lives."   
"Screw your crossbows to the sticking place!" Frey signaled the golden   
boar that pulled his chariot and led the troops out of the mighty doors,   
across the lawns of Heaven.   
The Einheriar followed, chanting. "We'll count on goodly Frey to lead   
the way! Through a mist, to a world, where within our troubled   
timestream something's lurking that you don't see every day! He's a   
Beast, not as strong as a mountain. We won't rest till he's good and   
deceased."   
Millions of elves began to leap and stream along the sides of the   
flowing tide of Einheriar. "Sally forth, tally ho!"   
The Einheriar shouted "Grab your sword!"   
The elves echoed. "Grab your bow!"   
"Thank the Lord and here we go!"   
Frey raised his sword and shouted. "We'll lay siege to the Earth and   
bring back his head!" 

Kami-sama looked down from his window at the departing hordes of   
mail-garbed heroes. Down below him, their voices could be heard chanting   
as the marched in orderly columns toward their foe. "We don't like those   
who won't understand in fact they scare us and this monster is obtuse to   
say the least. Grab your spears, bring your knives, heed our words and   
you'll be wise, we'll save a countless host of lives! We'll kill the   
Beast!"   
Behind him, a female voice asked of Kami-sama.   
"Was it truly necessary to start Ragnorak early?"   
He turned to her and seemed to be amused, hands clasped behind his back   
confidently. "It is not early. Now bring my armor." 

Grey grumbled. Bad enough to be a nice guy transformed into a demon by   
a capricious act of Toltir's. Being a nice demon working on getting his   
status upgraded to daemon by working in the Rival Relief Office was bad   
enough. WORSE was being a demon in Heaven when the Trump Of Doom had   
been sounded. He had the definite feeling that if he stepped outside the   
agency today, he'd be challenged and speared before he got to the   
sidewalk. Of course, this *would* be a day where he'd forgotten to pack   
a lunch.   
Nike, Roman goddess of victory, swept jingling with silver mail into   
the room and slapped a spear into his hand. Lifting him out of his seat   
as if he weighed nothing she announced to the room in general. "This   
area is being closed down, its existence canceled for the remainder of   
the battle to limit the number of available systems for the Infernals to   
subvert and turn against us. The Barely Adequate Force will remain   
online to temporarily power you as wargods."   
She slapped Grey on the shoulder, leaving him to cope with the new   
shield and swordbelt she'd dropped on his chest as she went to review   
the other two quasi-powers in the room.   
Grey stood quietly considering. Since the Barely Adequate Force was   
reliable enough to heat a pot of tea on a good day they weren't about to   
become anything very impressive.   
Nike grinned at him. "No. But you will be enough for our auxiliaries.   
All of you Rival Office workers have been promoted to commands. Since   
you other two have combat experience you are going to be right out in   
front. Grey here has none and so he will have a day to train."   
Grey spent a moment in tumultuous thought, which ended when he   
discovered his other two companions were gone and Nike was snapping her   
fingers in front of his face.   
"Snap out of it, Grey. You are now captain of the Penitent Souls   
division 104 from the reserve auxiliaries. You'll have a day to get your   
troops in order, and you'll need it. All the boxers and street toughs   
went in the divisions we are sending right to the front. You are getting   
dishonest bankers, crooked accountants, surly waiters and pastry chefs.   
I believe you have one sergeant who was an antisocial forest ranger who   
peed in campers' tents. He's your best man, use him."   
To Grey this was sounding alot like work in the Rival Relief Office.   
"Um, auxiliaries?" He asked, actually catching most of the connotations   
of that.   
Nike nodded regretfully. "And we'll use you exactly as the Romans   
always have. The auxiliaries go right out in front, between the enemy   
and the real troops, where we can press you forward if you pause and   
kill you if you run. I'm sorry, Grey. But these souls all had misconduct   
to recover from. We cannot trust them as well as we could the saints and   
heroes. None of them are completely recovered from the taint of sin and   
still we are having to use them. I hope you understand." 

*****   
Universe C, Tokyo Zoo, Ranma's Past 

Ranma blinked and found himself in his own past.   
It was one of those things, again, that most people didn't notice. The   
mortal plane has an aura of forgetfulness about it. While it has been   
said that spirits often forget, that is not true. They *remember*, and   
that is enough to distract their attention away from the mortal plane   
quite readily. It is only those who stay close to the mortal realm and   
its concerns that remain in a `mortal' frame of mind. We accuse the rest   
of not remembering when in truth they are involved with higher things.   
Perhaps the greatest benefit to this forgetfulness was that it allows   
for frequent change, a chance to improve and better yourself without a   
constant memory of all the past reasons of why you weren't better to   
begin with. The mortal plane was constantly changing, it was just that   
mortals changed fast enough themselves not to notice. They tended to   
gloss over certain..... um, how do you put it? Let's just say that the   
human mind could convince itself of practically anything.   
Contrary to popular opinion, timestreams really do behave like water,   
and that includes eddies and swirls and places where it momentarily runs   
backwards. This frequently causes enough havoc that the average person   
learns to spend most of their waking moments forgetting things they   
can't resolve into a comfortable world-view, or complaining about that   
tool not being where they left it.   
Even in a trained mind used to it, memory of things to come from a   
natural eddy fled like water down a drain, leaving at most a dampness   
worth of good hints. It wasn't common knowledge, but half of deja-vu was   
when you actually *had* experienced that moment of life before in one   
form or another.   
Ranma was not in the habit of spending half his life trying to convince   
himself the other half hadn't happened. This often had the tendency of   
leaving him stunned in awe while others went blithely on around him. Or,   
in this case, fully aware that he was living part of his life over   
again. Bereft of much beyond clues, but aware. And less likely than most   
to ignore those clues and repeat his life by rote.   
Even if he did have the feeling that he'd accomplished some sensational   
and wonderful things, and might miss the opportunity to do them.   
Ranma was still in girl form, having changed out of her interstellar   
diplomat garb fresh from the starship Enterprise, and she was now   
dressed as an American tourist. Something beneath Genma's notice as that   
latter went about tying his son up in steak, sausages and other meat   
over the pit of lions.   
Dr. Where wasted no time. Pointing a new device that it had taken him   
weeks to create, Ryoga triggered a beam at the redheaded female...   
...and she dodged. 

Seconds later, shouldering several people out of her way, the disguised   
Hibiki on her return trip watched a six year old Ranma fall into a Lion   
Pit. She saw concerned and frightened people, but knew that besides   
calling for the zoo keepers no sane person was going to help, especially   
by leaping into a pit full of hungry lions. No one, that is, except her. 

But then Ryoga didn't frequently qualify as sane. Homicidal? Yes.   
Psychotic? Frequently. Obsessive? Absolutely, to the point of no return   
in fact. But sane? No.   
Just as the timelord was about to act and leap to the rescue of the   
little boy her eyes bugged and her face flushed white with shock, then   
red with anger, as she saw the original Ranma, still disguised as an   
American tourist and in girl form, pull herself out over the lip of   
another pit.   
Ryoga gritted her teeth. That meant that her trip to hell was for   
nothing! That stupid Ranma had just dodged and *pretended* to get hit by   
ducking out of sight! The difference between vanishing into another   
universe and vanishing because you could hide really well hadn't   
occurred to Hibiki!   
Well then, she'd make Ranma pay for THAT TOO!! 

Blue Ranko was prepared to jump into the lion pit after her native self   
to save him from mauling when her newly returned combat senses warned   
her to duck. She did so and a cute and frilly ladies' parasol whizzed by   
where her head had been, daintily drifting on and carving a trench in   
the side of a concrete holding wall before twirling back and slapping   
back into the palm of a lady in a metallic, new age bodysuit.   
"Ryoga??" Ranko sputtered, momentarily forgetting one thing and   
remembering another.   
The lady in the new age bodysuit gaped. "But! But... how do you... HOW   
COULD YOU KNOW THAT!!?"   
Ranko adopted a `well duh' expression. "You mean besides the fact that   
few people use umbrellas like that and you clash like nobody's business?   
A silver bodysuit and a white lace and pink ribbon parasol? Get real. If   
you're *going* to crossdress at least try to be less obvious about it."   
Ryoga began simmering, then steaming, and finally got ready to explode   
in a monstrous rage. "RANMA! Prepare to..." He had just drawn in breath   
to scream his usual battle cry when the world ended.   
Well, that was what it seemed like.   
That may even have been what it was.   
A split opened up in the heavens, standing from the bare ground to the   
highest point in the sky. With a sound like a thousand trumpets the   
split widened and birthed a silvery armed throng in the millions,   
valkyries on winged horses flying air cover and generally frightening to   
death half a dozen men with guilty consciences, while filling most of   
the park attendees and zoo goers with a kind of wondering awe.   
There came with them a thundering shout that rent the mountains in a   
fierce parody of his usual battlecry.   
"RYOGA HIBIKI! PREPARE TO DIE!!!"   
Dr. Where became desperate, dropping his holo-disquise so his   
electronics could reserve more power for his defense shield. He knew he   
had only seconds if he were to do this and still escape. Abandoning all   
pretense of a fair fight he unsheathed a scatter-phasor, leveling it at   
Ranko, who was still disguised as a tourist.   
Her eyes went wide.   
Dodging something that was capable of vaporisizing a city block was not   
on her list of easy things to do. Not to mention that the entire crowd   
of people in the park around her were about to get blown into their   
component atoms.   
Ryoga's finger began to squeeze the trigger.   
A bronze-skinned woman with platinum hair led a group of small children   
into the beam path directly between them, filling up the timelord's   
sights. She sat down upon the low concrete retailing wall and lifted a   
tiny Ryoga Hibiki up into her lap. A Mrs. Tendo ushered her own flock up   
to join her friend and lifted her own little Akane high into the   
springtime air.   
The platinum-haired woman looked up and stared directly down the   
timelord's sights, bouncing a six year old Ryoga on her knee, his face   
all sticky with candy.   
Urd was goddess of the past and perfectly willing to flaunt that in any   
conflict involving time, thank you very much. Going back, making friends   
with a few people, offering to take their child to the park and   
arranging to meet a new friend and *her* little flock there were child's   
play.   
The timelord Dr. Where whimpered as he stared at his own tactic used   
against him. How could he destroy himself? How could he... how could he   
even THINK of destroying Akane??!?   
His phasor wavered...   
...and dropped.   
Snarling, Dr. Hibiki snapped his weapon back up to firing position.   
This was not the copy of himself that rose to be a timelord! Akane   
was... (tremble) Akane was STILL not important as DESTROYING RANMA!!!!!! 

That was when he was struck in the side of the head by a lightning bolt   
led by the world's most impressive hammer.   
Thor held out his hand and accepted his returning weapon.   
Blackened with burns and spouting the second largest headache of his   
life (the first being Ranma), Dr. Where saw that his equipment was   
ruined and realized that he had no time left at all. He sprinted for the   
safety of his tardis amid fields of elvish arrows falling down, around,   
and through him.   
Then a second hammer-leading-thunderbolt strike blasted the tardis into   
small bits of blackened wreckage.   
When the smoke cleared the timelord was gone. Undeterred, the Einheriar   
throngs spread out and began to search, as billions of their brethren   
all over the Earth were appearing from similar portals to do.   
A Hibiki could get lost better than anyone, but when there was   
literally nowhere to hide it cut short the amount of time he could   
remain alive regardless of that. The only portals to and from this   
incarnation of Earth at this time were those the heroes came in from,   
and those were one way, by Divine prerogative.   
There would be no escape, not even for those most elusive of   
Kami-sama's foes. He just planned too well, and had a power level   
unmatched by anything.   
The Lord of Light had a plan of happiness laid out for all his   
children. Those who followed it would inevitably wind up with all those   
things that were necessary for their great and lasting joy and gladness. 

Those who opposed it were, pretty much by definition, evil.   
Attempts to satisfy vain ambition, pride, hate, or a desire to feed   
your appetites without regard for the cost to others were all *swift*   
ways to wind up opposed to the plan of the Eternal Father of Heaven.   
On that thought all attention was brought back to the lion pit as a   
small boy cried out in pain.   
Frey leapt in to save the boy.   
An augmented lion swung a paw that would have decapitated the divinity   
before he even knew that he was in significant danger, except a long   
ribbon snaked down from the sidewall above and caught the lion's paw   
mid-swing, stopping it before surprise could cost Frey his life.   
Ranko was on the other end of that ribbon and soon she and Thor leapt   
in to the aid of Frey. Ranko swiftly discovered the amulets' power and   
disabled them, allowing the trio to retrieve the child without being   
slaughtered by all of the great cats.   
It was during the middle of this that a young Mrs. Saotome came running   
up to join her friends at their planned outing. Seeing where their   
attention was she followed their gazes into the pit.   
When the trio of adults jumped clear of the threshing mass of lions,   
Blue Ranko cradling her badly wounded six year old self, they   
immediately confronted Genma. But it was the shouted cry of the young   
Ranma in his older double's arms that landed the most telling blow.   
"Pops, why did ya gotta throw me in there with the food? Weren't the   
kitties angry enough? Why did ya starve `em ta throw me in? Huh?"   
Nodoka came stalking around the circular pit with a fury rarely seen by   
anything human. The Einheriar winced at some of the things she did to   
Genma.   
For those of you who didn't know, the Einheriar were heroes who fought   
to the death daily for thousands of years, being killed numberless times   
in training to prepare them for this war. They were without fear, immune   
to pain, and generally considered above the ordinary discomforts of a   
battle against multitudes of demonic creations.   
While fully deserved, some of what Nodoka did to her husband actually   
caused some of them to blanch.   
Some of the women, the ones without children to hustle out of the park,   
began to shout encouragement and suggestions.   
Genma's death was officially attributed to a `training accident.' It   
was even substantially true. Genma wouldn't have died if he hadn't tried   
to flee...   
...right across the Lion Pit.   
Divine Justice really *could* get amusing sometimes. 

Urd met up with Blue Ranko when the latter was unable to watch any   
longer and had edged away. Urd caught Ranko's arm and led her behind a   
tree where the screams weren't so bad.   
Urd was concerned.   
"Frey didn't fall." She whispered in awed tones.   
"Huh?"   
Urd was still blinking several times in wonder. "Frey didn't fall." She   
repeated. "You don't understand. We're *never* wrong about things like   
that. Frey was to be the first of us to fall in the battle of Ragnorak."   
A smile was finding its way to her lips, still accompanied by wonder.   
"And he didn't."   
"Excuse me," Ranko blinked. "Do I know you?"   
Urd nodded. "Urd, goddess second class, limited, Cupid of Love and Norn   
of the Past. I'm Belldandy's sister, if you'll remember." She put   
fingers to the base of her throat, thinking aloud. "My sisters and I   
have *never* been wrong about the Fates. That's what we *do* as Norns!"   
Completely lost in thought, the goddess splashed Ranko with a bucket of   
hot water, fitted herself to the restored boy's side, and began absently   
feeling his chest. She didn't *mean* anything particular by it (although   
she *did* like him), this was just an aid as she organized her thoughts. 

Ranma found himself encircled about by one of the cuddliest people in   
the multiverse.   
She mused aloud. "How could we be wrong? Okay, at first it was pretty   
silly. A bunch of the guys just wanted to come to us and have us say   
they'd get to continue to drink and party forever. They were pretty   
shocked when we told them they were fated to die, and where. People were   
so upset *everybody* in Asgard were soon trying to confirm their own   
immortality. But we weren't able to tell *anyone* they'd live through   
it. Father did some work on his own, so we knew what was to happen. And   
Balder died according to schedule. Aegir met *his* fate, killed by Loki   
at his own feast. A feast he'd given and *invited* Loki to just to prove   
us wrong."   
Urd grabbed Ranma's cheeks and stared into his eyes, still basically   
figuring it out herself, but finding him too convenient a prop for   
emphasizing the seriousness of it to.   
"*Every* other thing we've been called upon to predict has come true.   
Even that farmer who was told he'd be killed at home by the skull of his   
own horse, who buried the animal and sailed away. He vowed never to   
return and we were all kinda glad, we didn't *want* things like that   
fulfilled. But that guy met his fate anyway." Her voice went low and she   
looked away. "You can't imagine how depressing that was."   
Urd's gaze returned to Ranma and she began poking him in the chest. "So   
why didn't Frey die like we'd predicted? Huh? This *is* the battle where   
it was fated."   
"Uh," Ranma hedged. "Maybe somebody introduced a random element?"   
Urd sat in his lap with crossed arms. "There *aren't* any random   
elements. It would take Father Himself to..."   
Ranma could *see* the lightbulb go on over her head.   
"THAT was why He didn't punish Loki!!!" Urd slammed a finger into the   
boy's chest. Then slid so close they were practically sharing shirts.   
"When Loki killed Aegir he was to have been punished. We were all ready   
to do it. But Loki was only destined to be chained to that mountain in   
torment for a *certain number of years!* But we'd never predicted the   
start date of that! He hasn't even *been* chained there yet!" Urd was   
bouncing and giggling now, her arms incidentally clasped behind Ranma's   
neck.   
She dragged his head close again. "Don't you see? Father put that off   
so He would have time to change things. He even set up the world-tree   
system to keep the violence down while he plotted. By not punishing Loki   
He put the countdown time on hold, and with sufficient time to prepare   
even *we* could arrange something! And NOBODY plots better than Father!" 

Urd smothered the boy with a kiss. When she let him up for air she told   
him. "All this time we've been thinking there was no avoiding Ragnorak.   
All this time *Father* was working *TOWARD* avoiding it! And none of us   
even knew how! He's arranged something! Oh, I wish I knew what it was."   
She sat back in his lap, arms still clasped behind his neck, but   
leaning back to give him room while she pondered. The screams had long   
since ended and there were once again passers by. One of them stopped   
and shouted at the couple to get a room.   
Ranma blushed scarlet.   
Urd grinned and grabbed his hand, teleporting off and landing the pair   
of them before Thor. She whispered in the redhaired thunder God's ear.   
"Uh, sure." The figure of musclebound might rumbled. He waved a hand   
idly. "You're married."   
"WHAT??!?!!"   
Urd whispered in her husband's ear. "Aw, isn't that sweet, Ranma? Look,   
an actual deity has proclaimed us married. But it's Ragnorak, the Final   
Battle, surely you don't mind. It's not like we'll have time to regret   
it or anything..." She began nibbling his ear.   
Ranma could've swallowed a golf ball with ease in the gulp he gave. 

The Timelord Dr. Where stumbled into a mist-shrouded valley. Getting   
hit by one of the mightiest thunderbolts in creation had burnt out an   
entire suite of super technological defense items guaranteed to protect   
against things on the level of a direct nuclear blast.   
Dr. Where would have been pasted as well were it not for the fact that   
he had kept up his training. Still, there was no way he was living   
through *that* again, or anything even close to it.   
The mist partially hid him, but he could see Einheriar moving through   
the vapor around him. Getting blasted had burnt out all his cybernetics   
as well, which included his inertial navigator. For once he was glad,   
getting lost had prolonged his life better than any deliberate evasive   
pattern could have done.   
But it was not to last.   
Nearby in the fog a voice spoke up. "Oh! Sirs! Must leave fog, and   
swiftly! I show you training ground in morning, okay sirs? Very many   
people what drown here. You no want go walking around, sirs. Ahhh!! What   
you doing!??"   
Some of the Einheriar waded waist-deep into the pools and began   
searching them.   
The dead cannot drown.   
Tigers, sprites, faeries, homicidal lunatics, superheroes, and all   
other sorts of things up to and including gods can at least symbolically   
be drowned. Spirits, while you can lock them up in stone, imprison them   
in the deep, and subject them to space, they are pretty much indifferent   
to it. They cannot drown.   
That which cannot drown cannot be cursed by Jusenkyo.   
There was the sound of the Guide locking himself up in his hut, finally   
having noticed that his visitors were glowing.   
Ryoga died in Jusenkyo that night. There was nowhere else to hide.   
For some reason no one was prepared to believe the `I'm just a cute   
little pig' act. 

*****   
Heaven 

Urd, wedding ring on finger, aggressively nuzzled Ranma, kissing him   
with the frantic need of someone too used to starving, or expecting   
lonesome times to come.   
"Does it really have to be like this?" Ranma asked when he finally had   
air.   
Belldandy cuddled his chest. "Father never asks anything without the   
best of all reasons. It will be alright."   
Urd sniffed a tear, looking cute and girlish. She withdrew a potion   
from her blouse and handed it to him. "You need to reenter the   
timestream, darling. When you do, you can't remember any of this. This,   
for us, is the past. But when you catch up with our present, we will   
find you." She body-slammed him into an impressive hug, saying in his   
ear. "And you will remember all about us."   
Grimly nodding, Ranma slugged down the potion.   


To be continued.... 

************************************************   
************************************************ 

Author's Notes: 

Work had stalled on this when it occurred to me that I was working on   
page thirty, and already had an *excellent* cut-off point. 

The more comments I receive on this one the faster the next one gets   
out, I promise you. 

BTW, the passage of time in one universe does not necessarily mean   
anything to any other. Even time travel, while it can muck up the place   
you do it in quite badly, has little to no effect on others worlds until   
and unless they connect for some reason. Like sending someone from one   
to the other. 

As for Ranma, I really haven't made up my mind yet about whether being   
drawn backward along his personal timestream would undo the effect of   
his being split in two. It really should, but then again I'm in a sortuv   
funky mood, so who knows? 


	18. 18

Mirrors Multiplied 

Part Eighteen   
An Odd Reoccurrence   
or   
A Little Conflict 

by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber   


Disclaimer: This disclaimer wouldn't 'voom' if you put four million volts   
through it! It's run down the curtain, and joined the choir invisible.   
It's expired, and gone to meet it's maker. It's a stiff. Bereft of life,   
it rests in piece. If I hadn't nailed it to this perch it would be   
pushing up the daisies. This is an EX-disclaimer! 

Author's Forward: Hmm, without going into detail I didn't want to divulge   
as yet. Suffice it to say, that from Ranma's point of view, this begins   
from the end of part 16 as if 17 had not happened.   
That is not the case, of course. But we get to explore that in greater   
detail later on, and that is *only* from Ranma's point of view (nasty   
side effects to having your past muddled with and then mindwiped, you get   
the idea). 

*****   
Heaven 

Ares walked into Kami-sama's office, stopping in astonishment to see the   
Almighty still dressed up in armor, fully armed in fact.   
"Ares," the Almighty spoke without preamble. "We are hideously   
outnumbered and yet you insist on stirring up dissent and aiding   
wickedness in the pursuit of a good challenge. Over half of your personal   
power is presently invested in amulets and power-boosts that you have   
given over to agents of darkness to 'stir things up a little'. Having a   
good conflict could be amusing but there are plenty of agents of darkness   
without you creating them. This will be your only warning: One more act   
of evil and I will revoke your power as a god."   
The war-god's face darkened with anger, his hand reflexively going to   
the hilt of his weapon. "But Loki..!"   
"Loki has already received this warning, as have all other gods with   
this peculiar bent. You are the last." Kami-sama rose from his throne,   
taking steps across the dais to be closer to his subordinate deity.   
"Draw energy from something other than hate, Ares. There is nobility   
enough in the struggle of good verses evil. Your province is war, but   
I've had enough of you creating your own opponents to the forces of   
Light. Once more. Then I will see that all of your power is drawn from   
yourself, your artifacts, and the servant's you've created. If you insist   
on your old course then after I strip you of power I shall bestow it on   
Kasumi Tendo, and we shall see what kind of war-god *she* makes. Is that   
clear? Ragnorak was postponed, it is not yet over. And I shall not   
tolerate any energy from the side of Light supporting agents of Darkness.   
If you continue then Light will be fully withdrawn from you."   
Ares fought a snarl. "And Loki? Hel?"   
Kami-sama remained at the ready, and Ares recalled that while he was a   
god of war, Kami-sama was *the* God. That included war among too many   
other things to count.   
Any number of which could stop war in its tracks.   
"They have received their warnings. I shall expect you to abide by my   
Law or you will receive your punishment with those who elect to disobey.   
The transgressions of others will be no excuse for you. Recall that I am   
a God of Justice and of Power. My aspect of Mercy is only available to   
those who have shown it, and after receiving this last warning you are   
left with no excuse. Mercy claims its own; those that attempt to change   
their ways, those who were ignorant, or with good excuse. You have none.   
You knew better. Repent or all shall be as I've said."   
Fuming, Ares turned toward the exit.   
When the doors boomed closed Kami-sama departed for his own private   
chambers. He was met there by the female who had garbed him in armor. "He   
will most likely join with Loki and those others." She told him.   
Kami-sama accepted a refreshing drink from the glass that she bore.   
"That is known to me. But the guilty must have room to condemn   
themselves."   
"What will they do?"   
"Loki and those that follow him will attempt to subvert the Yggdrassil   
system. The quest to do this will consume their time and resources while   
my own plans progress. Those among our wayward children who take action   
upon their plans will be stripped of all that power and Light which they   
posses ."   
Kami-sama met the eyes of his wife. "Some will fall, more will redeem   
themselves when the fruits of their labor become clear. Those that fall   
will be destroyed, either in literal word and deed or when they call for   
power upon the Darkness which consumes its own. Our enemies will be   
weakened by the loss of power from their tainted allies among the our   
divine sons and daughters. They shall be further weakened by the loss of   
the influence and aspects no longer available to them. Then shall they   
lose more when allies or schemes which depend upon those influences and   
spheres demand them and they are not there to be given. Further, the   
children which choose to betray us will join the ranks of evil openly,   
and will thereafter be forced to contest with all the others for power.   
Power which already is less as so many of its sources are being lost to   
their side, forcing those of *their* side to already scramble and claw   
one another to retain the powers they already enjoy. Evil will gain no   
strength, only the discord and strife which has so long been fostered   
among others will be turned back upon them."   
"And the Light?"   
"Our greatest victory has already been won. The lines have been clearly   
drawn. A few centuries more of both sides to gather themselves. Evil is a   
prisoner of its own greed. While they gain in power and employ tools less   
dark and evil than themselves they can tolerate each other to some   
extent, but only then. When they can no more gain power from stealing and   
treachery against Light they will take it from each other. Whatever they   
have ever had, it can never be *enough*, a being of evil must always have   
MORE. In their darkness and anger they will tear apart all they have and   
still fight over the scraps left over. All this while the forces of Light   
will recover from the stupors and blindnesses the treachery of these evil   
ones have drawn over them.   
"The ultimate victory will be had not because of our numbers, but from   
the traits from which rise our strength. Evil has never had the capacity   
to produce anything of worth, it can only take from others. They can take   
only so long as those agents of Light which produce things of worth can   
be deceived or overpowered. But the Light claims its own. Victory will be   
ours because of the mere polarization of good verses evil. While our   
enemies fight and claw to be masters of what they have, *we* are   
overcoming the deceptions which allowed our enemies to feed on us. Good   
and Evil are being labeled as such. Good will draw together, the strong   
defend the weak, the weak will stand together. No slight effort will   
steal energy for evil. There will be no easy place to hide. Every man,   
every force and person will be seen for what they are and who they serve.   
"There will come a day when the forces of that which is good and holy   
will no longer be deceived or overpowered. No other thing is required for   
victory." 

*****   
We Now Return You To Our Present, In Progress 

Universe D, Eva Timeline 

Nabiki turned over on her side. Eventful Day kind of summed it up. But   
that failed to capture the real weirdness, even in comparison to Ranma's   
normal behavior. There was also that minor fact that had that wish not   
changed Ranma as it did, with all that went on with the Evas later on   
they might not have survived.   
So how did she feel about owing her life to Ranma's change?   
Eyes open, unable to sleep, Nabiki caught some movement outside her   
window and rolled out of bed to see Ranma perched on top of a tree branch   
outside. His back was toward her as he considered the sky, and she heard   
him softly sing. 

**   
"Have I done any good in the world today?   
Have I helped anyone in need?   
Have I cheered up the sad, or made someone feel glad?   
If not I have failed, indeed. 

Was anyone's burden made lighter today   
because I was willing to share?   
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?   
When they needed my help was I there? 

Then wake up! And do something more   
than dream of your mansions above!   
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure.   
A blessing of duty, and love." 

(The boy sighed and looked out over the city, across the waves and   
including the two paralyzed angels in his study.)   


"There are chances for good all around just now   
Opportunities right in our way.   
Do not let them pass by, saying 'Sometime I'll try.'   
But go and do something today. 

'Tis nobler of man to work and to give.   
Love's labor has merit alone.   
Only he who does something helps others to live.   
To God each good work will be known. 

So wake up! And do something more   
than dream of your mansions above!   
Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure.   
A blessing of duty, and love."   
** 

The young man sighed a long moment. "So, Nabiki, ya like it?"   
The young lady opened her window from the crack she normally kept it for   
breezes on summer nights and she leaned on the sill, arms crossed beneath   
her breasts as she let the sea breezes play with her hair and nightgown.   
"Sounds a little stupid, really." She shot a look at him look at him that   
was half tease and half serious. "What kind of bonehead would really put   
himself out like that? Do you honestly have time for all that?"   
Ranma finished watching the stars and turned his head to regard her.   
"Nabiki, let me tell you a brief and only moderately related secret. Men   
like to build. It is what they do given their preference until and unless   
it is beaten or trained out of them. But hand in hand with that comes the   
ability to destroy, they are linked and no one yet has found any way to   
separate those two talents. It may surprise you that women are not men,   
their greatest *natural* talent is not to build but to manipulate that   
which already exists. And again, they can use that both for good or ill."   
He spun on the branch to face her, leaves jingling about as he did so.   
"The contract of civilization at its most basic level is that a woman   
agrees not to use her manipulative talent to cause emotional pain to a   
man and he, in turn, agrees not to kill her."   
Nabiki's hair fizzed like an electric current had hit her.   
Ranma's level gaze did. "We now live in an age that is so called   
'civilized.' Which means that if a man uses his power to destroy he gets   
punished. But there are no laws against women causing emotional hurt or   
inflicting ridicule and all the other ways she has of being nasty. By far   
the majority of you women have figured out that you can do as you like   
all the day long and if a man does anything back he gets punished, so   
you're safe, right?"   
Nabiki noted with some displeasure that Ranma's face was like flint and   
considered trying to close her window and wondered if it would help any.   
She concluded not and then found she had nothing left to do. When people   
needed talking down she'd always went and got Kasumi, but that gaze   
wouldn't let her go.   
Menace oozed off of Ranma. "But you forget that *all* of civilization is   
a BARGAIN! A series of agreements by both sides. If, at the most basic   
level, you are not keeping your half at all, what is there, *really*, to   
stop me from breaking mine?"   
Nabiki Eeeped.   
Suddenly the martial artist was as calm as a summer day and Nabiki had   
to wonder whether she'd been imagining all of that sheer terror of a   
moment ago. "Of course it doesn't work like that. If civilization   
dissolves it will be for other reasons. But you'd best admit to at least   
yourself that the result of cruelty is first to destroy love, next to   
exhaust patience, and third to engender hate. Building up alot of hate   
with nowhere for it to go isn't a great idea. It *will* either find an   
outlet or make one. All containers have their limits. What'll you do when   
all those convenient rules that keep you safe don't work anymore? Because   
all empires fall. The usual symptoms are problems no one can seem to do   
anything about, corruption in government, and in spite of all that the   
people being complacent and sure they can't be overthrown - from inside   
or without."   
He rolled over to look at her, lying on the limb. "Because you see, a   
strong and vital society will recognize things that can be a problem and   
deal with them, but one that's old and bloated doesn't want to bother.   
You can compare it to a man who takes care of himself, does his hygiene,   
brushes his teeth, and all that, dealing with problems before they arise.   
Or to a fat and greasy old fart who survives on junk food, who already   
*has* a ton of health problems he ignores until one day he's watching TV   
and a heart attack kills him abruptly."   
He sighed. "It always seems to happen like that. People who are sure it   
will go on working because it always has before, ignore all of the   
warning signals of when it *stops* working. It is *very* much like a   
grease gizzard who ignores a chest pain until suddenly he's dead. It is   
only when he's essentially already gone that he thinks to do anything   
about it, but by then it's far too late."   
The martial artist lofted an eyebrow. "So tell me, does your society   
have health problems?"   
Ranma rolled over and folded his arms below his head. "Should things   
break, all the old grudges tend to come up. Race quite often fights   
against race, and 'scores get settled' so to speak. What it means is that   
people kill each other. Sides that're both wrong will claim the other is   
wholly at fault and they will take it out on each other in blood."   
He craned his neck to look at her. "Building up hate along gender lines   
places you on a side against the one with all the natural ability in   
destruction. And a true barbarian is just an angry man who doesn't care."   
His eyes caught her and froze her soul. "The most civilizing influence   
on a man is a kind woman. But if you try and tell me you *are* one I'll   
laugh in your face, and you are only slightly worse than normal. How many   
proto-barbarians do you know of that that leaves? I leave it to you: are   
men made gentle by loving influences of kind women more numerous, or are   
the ones made bitter by hateful witches such as yourself more common?"   
Within a fluttering 'little-bird-sees-big-cat' heart, some part of   
Nabiki was cataloging all of the really kind women she knew, and came up   
with one - her elder sister, who was single. Then she started to count up   
all the boys she'd included in her personal trail of destruction.   
Ranma's eyes bored into her, reading her mind like a book. "Do you WANT   
to start a war that badly outnumbered?"   
Ranma was back to studying the sky again, speaking calmly. "Imagine for   
yourself a world without any safety, Nabiki, where your body belongs to   
anyone who takes it and a harsh word will get you dead. Because I have   
seen those worlds, and you are heading into one very soon now - possibly   
*very* soon indeed, and the TV will not tell you when it's coming. It   
will be something you don't look for that sparks it, it always is, but   
the pressure buildup is there. You should be aware of it."   
He shot a smile toward her. "Back to my main point. Did you know that   
kindness and trust cover the fundamentals of marriage, too? Men may   
*start* by checking out a pretty face, but the catch is made when he   
finds out that she can be trusted to use her talent kindly to soothe the   
hurts he picks up in daily wear, instead of adding to them. And she looks   
for a man first who 'builds' enough so that she's supported, yet he only   
catches her when she knows that he can be trusted to be kind and not   
exert his power to hurt her."   
Nabiki yawned, struggling to reclaim her unflappability. "I can think of   
exceptions."   
His smile gained in good humor. "All truth begins in generalities,   
Nabiki. Remember that. We find what the basic truths are and then we find   
what modifies them case by case, if anything does. It is a common   
misunderstanding to assume that truth has to be complicated. As a basic   
rule of thumb, good enjoys simplicity, and evil enjoys that which is   
complicated. And good and truth are inseparable. When the exceptions   
outnumber the simple things you can be sure that something's broken."   
He hopped over to her window and plucked her out from it, taking her   
with an arm under her legs and an arm behind her back. "However, I've had   
enough of philosophizing for an evening. Here I've gone and lost all the   
good feeling that had come from my first song, and you are responsible.   
Since I prefer to go to sleep on a happy note, and I'll need all the rest   
I can get for the insanity doubtless to strike tomorrow, you are going to   
have to help me."   
Nabiki had a sudden vision of herself with a handkerchief tied over her   
hair, dealing with a bawling baby version of Ranma while the daddy looked   
on, and stiffened in fright.   
Ranma put her down and shook his head sadly. "What a unsteady sight you   
are. As if you've no trust left in you. Look, I shall be honest. Not only   
am I the *last* man on earth to try to take a woman by force, but as you   
are you aren't particularly appealing to me. Being pretty only serves to   
draw attention. Once its done its job then it hands over its task to the   
beauty and kindness of your soul. No man alive who knows you would trust   
you to be kind, and since kindness and trust are what really defines   
attractiveness after the initial draw fades, you aren't left with much."   
He waved a hand sadly. "Whatever physical beauty you have claim to is   
more than canceled by the ugliness of your personality. No, I shouldn't   
say you are ugly. Repulsive is a better word. Your face has not yet lost   
its softness to the inevitable hard look of your later years, and you are   
not yet scoured by the scowl lines engraved in line by line, that later   
so cancel out your beauty that even you yourself forget that you were   
lovely as a youth. More to the point, while rich, you forget ever being   
happy."   
"The face you have when you're born is the one your parents gave you.   
The one you have when you're older is the one you've earned. All that you   
do, Nabiki, just about everything; hiding your emotions, preying upon   
others, cruelty - EVERY ONE of those gives their share to building a face   
as ugly as your actions. I can't count the number of sour, ugly boardroom   
types who were once quite beautiful. But when you make it your business   
to hurt others it leaves its mark."   
The middle Tendo was sobbing as tears ran down her cheeks. "Do you make   
it your business to hurt my family, Saotome?"   
"If I said yes would it make my words any less true?"   
Ranma shook his head. "No. I don't. However, to quote a scripture you've   
probably never heard: 'The wicked take the truth to be hard.' I would   
count myself a fool not correcting gross wickedness when granted a chance   
and when the alternative is to be happy. You don't have to be ugly. Akane   
doesn't have to be as bitter and lonely as you after her anger transcends   
the limits of her peers to deal with. You both could be quite happy,   
attractive, well-liked and cared for by someone who thinks the world of   
you. Neither of you *will* be on your present course of actions. Hate   
twists a persons features as badly as cruelty does, she's only got a few   
years of attractiveness left before she's an ugly hag. Nature marks her   
most dangerous creatures and being an abusive man-hater clearly   
qualifies."   
Nabiki shot him a red-eyed, teary, angry expression that said she could   
think of man-hating being justified under certain circumstances, like now.   
Ranma exhaled wearily and explained. "Akane's anger not only soils her   
own nest but her behavior scars the tender feelings of any man who knows   
her. In viewing her, they become more timid toward women in general   
because here's one doing EVERYTHING in her power to *prove* herself   
dangerous - ie, hurtful toward men. What that means is that women who've   
done nothing wrong find the road toward happy marriage is made doubly or   
triply harder because their potential mates are scared of finding more   
girls out there who act like this harridan they've seen. Men aren't sure   
they *want* to marry if there's a chance they'll end up with someone as   
hurtful as her. So the men proceed more cautiously, which means more   
slowly, and the girls get frustrated with the pace. Anyone who is   
frustrated is less kind, and behold! Proof! The men were right to go with   
caution because, look, these girls are *also* unkind. And if there's   
another witch running about delighting in another kind of cruelty to add   
to the first, well then..."   
Ranma shook his head. "All it takes is one *really* bad example and a   
whole load of marriages don't happen. With two of you... many of your   
female classmates will die single because of *your* actions." He frowned.   
"But here you've got me philosophizing again. I was trying to relax. I   
can feel in my bones that tomorrow will be a big day and I've learned to   
trust those feelings."   
He bent over and took her hand. "I would like to sing something to calm   
me down, and what I'd prefer to sing is best done with an attractive   
cuddle toy in my arms. Since you are one of the few females I could do   
that with and not wind up married to her the next day, you can repay the   
favor you owe by quietly occupying arm space." He smiled. "I repeat, I   
want merely to hold you. Are we agreed?"   
"Oh?" Nabiki choked out through her tears. "I thought I was too ugly for   
you."   
Again, he shook his head. "Nope. I said the road you're on leads that   
way, and that to hide your better side so deeply that everyone is   
convinced you don't have one is not a way to lead into a life of   
happiness. As far as physical features go you're really quite lovely. We   
can ignore all negatives for a moment and pretend things really are that   
way, and who knows?" He shrugged. "They might be."   
Ranma offered her a smile. "Very little of what's ever been done isn't   
reversible." He eyed her as she recovered herself and thought about it.   
Inwardly, Ranma sighed. ~Oh, little Nabs-chan. Please be alright, and   
don't be unhappy in yet another lifetime.~   
Nabiki nodded, drying tears. "Okay."   
He hoped that was in answer to what he didn't dare ask. But he smiled   
fondly as he swept her out, sat together with her on the leafy branch,   
and began to sing. 

**   
"Life is full of sweet surprises   
every day's a gift   
The sun comes up and I can feel it   
lift my spirit 

Fills me up with laughter   
Fills me up with song   
I look into the eyes of love   
and know that I belong 

(Ranma snuck a tiny side glance at Nabiki, leaned against him, her sobs   
quieting) 

Bless us all   
who gather here   
The loving family I hold dear. 

No place on Earth   
compares with home   
And every path will bring me back   
from where I roam. 

(A fond memory crossed as he thought of 'home', and Nabiki chanced to   
glance up to see him smiling wistfully, yet with great fondness. And due   
to her current location found a tiny hope that maybe a little of that   
might be directed to her.) 

Bless us all   
that as we live   
we'll always comfort and forgive 

(The word 'forgive' caught Nabiki in mid-sob, and she paused in thought   
even as her breath shuddered in and out) 

We have so much   
that we can share   
with those in need we see   
around us everywhere. 

(Ranma thought of movie crews and starship captains, ghostbusters and   
girls and just smiled) 

Let us always love each other   
Lead us to the light   
Let us hear the voice of reason   
singing in the night. 

(A wry smirk from Ranma this time, that *he* of all people, had become a   
voice of reason.) 

Let us run from anger   
and catch us when we fall.   
Teach us in our dreams and please, yes please   
Bless us one and all. 

Bless us all   
with playful years   
with noisy games and joyful tears 

We reach for you   
and we stand tall   
And in our prayers and dreams we ask you:   
Bless us all. 

We reach for you   
and we stand tall   
And in our prayers and dreams we ask you:   
Bless us all."   
** 

Silently and gently, Ranma cradled Nabiki's body to him, asleep and   
unused to all the emotions which had drained her. With great care he   
lifted and carried her into her room and lay her to bed, tucking the   
covers about her quietly. Then he kissed her softly on her cheek.   
"Oh, Nabiki-chan. I may have married other women before you, and others   
since, but there has never been anyone that I've married as *often* as   
you. Please treat yourself well this timeline, okay? It hurts so much to   
see you destroy yourself when I know what you *could* be with a little   
effort."   
She murmured something softly in her sleep and he left, closing the   
window partway behind him.   
In the room next to hers Kasumi blinked from behind her curtains as the   
breeze from the open window above her bed carried in the soft sounds of   
Ranma departing her sister's room.   
That first song had been pretty. The conversation after...   
Kasumi did not get very much sleep that night, having much to think on. 

*****   
Yet Another Alternate Universe 

It was very difficult, Ranko reflected, as her chi reformed itself into   
a viable life force once again, to actually *die* while carrying the   
Silver Imperial Crystal. It tended to resurrect one in frequently awkward   
ways.   
Not that she had a great deal of experience with this before, but   
staring at the inside walls of a high-tech, high-security prison built   
with a great deal of ingenuity, super science, and absolutely no mercy or   
unnecessary kindness, she came to the conclusion that what she'd heard   
about the 'awkward' bit was assuredly true.   
Wait a minute, she recognized this cell.   
Ranko spent the next eleven minutes laughing.   
The guards monitoring the detention area's audio pickups merely logged   
that the prisoner in that cell had gone insane from the strain of knowing   
of her upcoming execution. The brief chortle of some nonsensical phrase   
was duly noted as proof.   
When the cell exploded seconds later they logged that the laughter was   
probably that of relief at finding she'd retained some form of concealed   
suicide device, and the phrase an obvious command trigger. They sent a   
squad over with a few droids to assess the damage and perform cleanup.   
When communication with the squad cut off in a short series of blasts   
and gurgling screams the officer in charge assumed that the explosion had   
freed one of the Yuzzums in the neighboring cells, sent a squad to   
contain the creature, and requested additional troops for the recapture   
of the beast.   
When Ranko blazed into the operations area of the detention block they   
didn't have any time to log much of anything. 

*****   
Universe D, Eva Timeline 

"Hi Kasumi!" Sasami chirped, bringing out a plate of food from the   
kitchen. "You slept in and I didn't want to wake you, so I made everyone   
breakfast. I hope you don't mind."   
Kasumi shook her head. "No, I don't mind. It was very sweet of you. You   
shouldn't have to cook."   
"Oh, but I LIKE doing it!" Sasami replied cheerily.   
Ryoko floated by lazily and Kasumi had cause to wonder at how odd her   
house had become since yesterday.   
"Come join us on the porch!" Yosho called from said place, waving a cup   
while his daughter Achika sat happily near his side. "We're having   
breakfast out here today."   
Kasumi wandered out to see a minor banquet spread out over a groundcover   
on her landing. The ships of both the UN and their own government could   
easily be seen sailing around the legs of the paralyzed angels.   
Occasionally, one of the US ships would fire their guns at one of the   
beasts.   
With a sky of gorgeous blue, the sea rippling in reflected sunlight, and   
lovely little puffy white clouds it actually made a gorgeous scene. And   
so Kasumi spent an enjoyable morning, not having to do a thing. She got   
to watch as her family trickled in, enjoy the good manners and society of   
her guests, eat without having to cook (a RARE treat for her), and enjoy   
quiet suspicions about the way that Ayeka girl seemed so enamored with   
her brother Yosho.   
It was Kasumi's quiet conclusion that Ayeka wanted her brother to get   
married soon.   
The peace of this almost idyllic morning was broken when Akane stormed   
through. It was easy to tell that she'd already blocked last night's   
confrontation with Ranma from her mind totally. She hadn't liked it,   
ergo, she refused to deal with it.   
Kasumi was quietly suspicious about many of the points that Ranma had   
raised. If she would refuse to acknowledge such a conversation as she'd   
had, what part of reality did her little sister live in?   
Ranma strolled in and it was obvious to everyone from the glare she shot   
him that Akane and Ranma were already well into their usual morning   
argument.   
"Go *ON* then!" Akane shouted at him. "Go be with your harem! Let's see   
how you like it when I start dating other guys!!"   
"Again?" He asked with raised eyebrows. He glanced skyward and thought.   
"Let's see, how many 'training missions' have you been on with Ryoga?   
Just what did you mean when you told Shinosuke that you could love him?   
Are we certain that the neighbors don't know that you take off with magic   
princes all the time? There has to be SOMEONE curious as to why you treat   
every male on this planet better than me."   
Ayeka and Ryoko both started chortling.   
Akane ignored them, focusing her steam against Ranma. "SHUT UP!!!"   
She hauled back a barbell to throw it, when an orange energy beam split   
between her fingers and vaporized the metal, going on to part her hair.   
Electric shocks followed and Akane twisted in agony on the ground as   
lightning ripped through her.   
"Doesn't learn her lessons well, does she?" Ayeka asked, calmly sipping   
her tea.   
"No, she doesn't." Ryoko spared the Jurai princess a glance that had   
some real friendliness in it. Being on the same side like this wasn't   
turning out so bad after all.   
"MIYAA!"   
Ryoko looked down at her little Ryo-ohki by her side. "Funny, that   
sounded like you when you're in spaceship form."   
Yosho grabbed his energy sword in all seriousness. "We're under attack!"   
The house disappeared in a flaming globe of plasma. When the smoke   
cleared Ranma was standing in the midst of a very powerful protective   
spell, whose confines protected all the others (save for Genma and Mr,   
Tendo, who'd still been upstairs plotting, and were now lying in the   
classic positions of the critically bonked).   
His spell faded and flickered away. His guests were all already acting   
at once.   
Ryoko threw her little pet into the air, transforming it into a replica   
of the spaceship that had just attacked. Yosho leaped out of the wreck of   
the house in order to gain clear ground on which to battle, while Ayeka   
followed him. Achika powered up her own Juraian gifts and began to trot   
after her father, sparing a glance back at Ranma.   
No sooner had Ryoko caused her pet to transform than both she and it   
were bathed by a yellow beam. They screamed for several seconds then fell   
limply to the ground wearing metal collars around both their necks, weak   
and helpless, with Ryo-ohki back in cabbit mode.   
"Hehehehehehe!!!" Laughed a voice from the floating enemy ship. "I   
created you, Ryoko, do you think your own mom wouldn't know how to   
discipline her daughter?"   
"Dragon Slave!!!!"   
A multifracted beam of orangish red light tore from the ruins of the   
Tendo household and pierced the spaceship right through the middle,   
causing the crystal spacecraft to shatter into a dozen pieces. 

*****   
That Same Alternate As Before 

Leia awakened with a start as the door to her cell swished open. The   
short figure silhouetted in the doorway waving a blaster in the air   
immediately got her attention, and she quickly sat up in her bunk.   
"Princess?"   
Leia blinked. "Yes?"   
"We're here to rescue you!"   
Her heart leaped. "You're what!"   
Sailor Earth bobbed prettily, tossing the princess the blaster. "I said   
I'm here to rescue you." She winked. "I didn't think you'd be interested   
in my just delivering a 'Get Well' card. Well, unless it had a hold out   
blaster in it."   
"Who's with you?" Princess Leia demanded, rising off of her bunk and   
snatching the proffered blaster up from the floor.   
Ranko spent several moments giggling, then recovered somewhat. "Sorry,"   
she giggled some more. "I got carried away. I didn't mean 'we', I meant   
me. Anyways, I'd always wanted to say that. And you wouldn't *believe*   
how much I wanted to! I'm lucky to have gotten here before the others."   
"What do you mean, is there another rescue party? I presume the others   
are doing a distraction." Leia asked, checking the blaster's charge to   
make sure it was powered and coming out of her cell. She stopped as she   
saw the scene of destruction outside.   
"I guess." Sailor Earth admitted, not noticing Leia's sudden pause.   
"Actually, the guys I'm thinking of would've gotten you out. I just   
wanted to do it first."   
Leia gave her costumed rescuer a curious glance and motioned toward the   
many mauled bodies. "Did you do that?"   
"Oh, them." The displaced defender of Earth fidgeted sheepishly. "They   
resisted a little more than I thought they would."   
Princess Leia nodded in appreciative horror at the Stormtrooper Pretzel   
Sticks that had formerly been the guards of this cell block. "Looks like   
heavy fighting. Is this were you lost the rest of your team? I don't see   
any bodies that aren't Imperials."   
Sailor Earth toed the floor. "Um, no, actually, it was just me that did   
all this. They had me locked up on execution detail, the same as you."   
She chirped, then bounced down the corridor to the operating center for   
controlling the cell block, which went happily beeping along in spite of   
the bodies piled over the counters. "Anyway, there are some other guys   
who're *also* here ta rescue ya. Looks like I got ya first, though."   
"I don't understand." The princess bent down, pulling a utility belt off   
of one of the dead guards and piling it full of grenades. "They *can't*   
execute me! I'm a member of the Imperial Senate. Only the Emperor has the   
right to condemn me to death."   
"Only the Emperor?" The Sailor whispered. "But.... but that's SILLY! The   
Emperor dissolved the Senate!"   
Leia's face went as white as her dress.   
Ranko paused for a moment. *THIS* wasn't how the 'save the princess'   
scene always went in the movie. Had she screwed up? Swiftly, she reviewed   
the movie in her mind.   
"Ooops." Ranko muttered, when the Princess still hadn't moved. As a   
frequent time traveler, she ought to have recognized that she didn't   
always jump in where she *thought* she was.   
Ranko took the princess by the arms. "Has anybody by the name of Grand   
Moff Tarkin talked to you yet?"   
Leia shook her head.   
Ranko remained serious. "Has Vader interrogated you yet?"   
A grim nod.   
"Okay, so they ain't even blown up Alderaan yet, have they? That's   
somethin' they were going to bring you up to watch. But if ya don't know   
that Tarkin's here, then ya ain't seen it, which means they ain't done   
it."   
The Scout briefly reflected that not being her whole self, and being   
'reincarnated' if you will, into the body of one of her dimensional   
duplicates, seemed to have affected her speech patterns adversely.   
The princess had hardened, her lips grim. "You're an Imperial spy. This   
is a set-up."   
"Yup!" Ranko chirped up helpfully, having dealt with that kind of   
situation before and knowing refusal wouldn't work. "I did all this just   
to trip you up, killing my fellow stormtroopers was kind of a thrill, I   
always like to turn on allies, but you'd expect that of an Imperial   
agent. So I'm going to pose as a fellow Rebel sympathizer and get you to   
reveal to me all your secrets by gaining your trust through the clever   
plan of saving your homeworld, defending the Rebel base on Yavin IV if it   
comes under attack, possibly destroying this Death Star by exploiting its   
secret weak point as described in the data you've cleverly hidden inside   
that astromech droid, reveal to you the identity of the brother you'd   
been separated from at birth... Heck! I'm so sneaky and insidious maybe   
I'll disclose that I'm a boy and sometime around our third kid or so when   
we've been happily married for a long time and you're finally beginning   
to let your guard down just a trifle I will betray you *then*, when you   
least expect it."   
Ranko was looking at the princess with an utterly straight face.   
Leia broke up laughing.   
It was better than crying. She *knew* she hadn't revealed that   
information about the rebel base under interrogation, so there was either   
another player and this *was* an ally or somehow the Empire had learned a   
different way.   
Ranko bounced over to the cell block controls. "Well, you and I are too   
curvy to fit in any of these uniforms. So that leaves out a *normal*   
disguise. Hmm... I think I'll call a tech team up here to deal with all   
those audio sensors I disabled." She began fumbling with the unfamiliar   
computer system, then gave it up and turned to the Princess. "I can't   
understand this at *all!* Could you figure out a way to get two female   
uniforms up here in our sizes?"   
"What are your sizes?" Leia asked, carefully looking over the board.   
Ranko told her.   
Leia looked blankly at her. "That tells me nothing. Couldn't you give it   
in Galact?"   
"Is that your standard measurement?"   
"Yes, haven't you ever been to a clothes store before? What part of the   
galaxy do you come from?"   
Ranko shook her head helplessly, then pursed her lips. "One of the outer   
spiral arms."   
They looked at each other helplessly. Ranko gave a BIG sigh. "Okay, why   
don't you just get a *picture* of what a technician or lower ranked   
officer or somebody's outfit *looks* like for a girl, and I'll do the   
rest."   
Shrugging, Leia turned to the board, thinking of what kind of bizarre   
primitive didn't even know how to access a standard terminal, and what   
was she doing *here!*?   
Data came up.   
"Hang on." Leia told her primitive companion. "I've got other princesses   
listed as confined in here."   
"You mean the yuzzums?(1)" Ranko asked, rubbing her nose. They had   
smelled... potent, she thought was a good word for it. Good thing she'd   
read all the Star Wars books or she'd not even have known they were   
anything but funny looking wookies; Longer in arm for one thing.   
Leia took her blaster and started down one of the cell blocks at a trot.   
"No, leaders of other rebellions. If we were to combine our forces the   
Empire..." She stumbled to a halt at the blown out wreckage of what'd   
been a cell. Her shoulders and arms drooped dejectedly. Her lips quirked   
dryly. "So that's what that explosion was. She'd smuggled abroad a   
self-destruct charge and committed suicide. Can't say I blame her."   
Ranko was blinking at her side, the details did not click. "Excuse me,   
aren't we going to go look for the other princesses?" She noted a furry   
arm snaking out of one of the holes made by the twisted plates of metal   
in one of the cells next to hers. The yuzzum inside was desperately   
trying to escape, so she went over and hit the release panel like she'd   
seen Luke do in the movie.   
Nothing happened.   
Leia was already trotting down another corridor and Ranko wanted to   
hurry and catch up, so she just tore the door off, waved the creature   
out, and ran off after her friend.   
Being reincarnated also wasn't good for your wits. 

(1) The Star Wars galaxy has as many varieties of large, furry man-shaped   
creatures as we have apes, and yuzzums are one of the nastier ones. Being   
in the same room as a yuzzum is largely considered lethal, unless you and   
they hit it off right, of course.   
Generally a bit shorter than wookies, yuzzums are stronger, smarter,   
tougher, and if they weren't so doggone violent would probably be a ton   
more popular. In the book in which they appeared one took several deep   
chest slashes from Darth Vader's lightsaber and still went on to save   
Luke's life.   
Unlike wookies and ewoks, yuzzums are not tree climbers. But unarmed   
they'll each take on four or five armed stormtroopers at once and   
probably emerge without a scratch on them (but *with* the blasters and   
grenades and whatever else of use those stormtroopers might have been   
carrying). They are not generally known to hit things when repairing   
them. But aliens (like us humans) tend to fall into two main categories:   
friends, and fun things to break. With friends being decided on a   
case-by-case individual being basis. 

*****   
Universe D, EVA Dimension 

Flashback, NERV HQ the Day Before 

"Commander!" Misato shouted, turning to face him while holding a device   
to her ear. "We're registering a *new* AT field. Type...." she tapped on   
her screen for a bit.   
"Well?" Gendo's voice was demanding. Blast it! This wasn't according   
to...   
"The MAGI are working on it." Ritsuko interrupted.   
"GREEN??" Misato asked, from over her shoulder. Shoving the scientist to   
the side she examined the screen. "That can't be right. There ISN'T a   
*green* type AT field!"   
Ritsuko folded her arms arrogantly. "You can believe it. If the MAGI say   
that it's green, it's green. They *don't* make mistakes."   
Misato was looking up, a little sheepish at how close she'd skated the   
edge of tolerances with her outburst. "Green?"   
"Well, we know it's an AT field. And that it isn't one of ours." Ritsuko   
returned her gaze to the big screens displaying the battle.   
Misato stood from where she'd been hunching over the controls. "Well,   
green is *sortuv* blue, so we'll just call it the enemy until we learn   
otherwise, okay?" She shot a two-finger victory sign to her associate.   
"Straighten your skirt, Misato." Ritsuko warned her confederate without   
deigning to look at her.   
Glancing down, the long-haired, shapely woman discovered that her   
miniskirt had ridden up far enough to show a hint of panties. Many of the   
male command crew were staring at it.   
"Get your mind back on your job!" She shouted, hastily readjusting her   
skirt. 

End Flashback 

Alarm bells and whistles tore the peaceful fabric of the NERV command   
center.   
"Green type AT field has returned to our scopes." One of the technicians   
spoke.   
"&%#@, So it *wasn't* just static from the Angel's own AT field." Misato   
swore.   
"Better get the pilots to their EVAs." Ritsuko said calmly, staring at   
the screen.   
"Hang on, they're on their way to school. It'll take some time to recall   
them."   
More alert beacons twisted the atmosphere of the already cluttered   
command display. "WHAT!?? MORE AT Fields???" Misato could hardly believe   
her eyes. "Please tell me this is some kind of drill, or a malfunction,   
right?"   
"The MAGI are analyzing the fields now. Some of them actually occurred   
*before* the green type reappeared. Hang on."   
Gendo scowled as the information brought out by the doctor's efforts   
with the MAGI super computers came up on the display.   
"White type AT Fields, orange type.... What's going on? There wasn't   
*anything* in the material about situations like this. None of our   
research on the dispatched Angels has yielded anything that would suggest   
this." Ritsuko murmured.   
"Well, we'll just have to improvise, then." Misato charmed her fried   
with a grin. "We have three minutes until the children are inside the   
Geofront, then we can begin counter-operations. What's the status on the   
Angel?"   
"Sir!" One of the techs on the boards said. "They appear to be duking it   
out among themselves!" 

"Grandfather!" Tenchi called out in surprise.   
The old man stalking to face him said not a word, his face frozen in   
anger, allowing the blazing energy blade held at the ready in his hand   
make clear his opinions for him.   
"But... but... Grandpa?" Tenchi stammered. "Don't you even remember me?"   
The old man's face did not unfreeze. "I am not your grandfather." He   
raised his blade and took a slash at the boy's head.   
"But... You *are* my grandfather!" Tenchi screamed, diving under the   
blade and thankful for once for all those summers of practice. "Don't you   
remember? You raised me at the shrine during the summers after my mom   
died! Since our house moved I see you after school there every day!"   
Yosho made a lateral cut, still testing the boy's skills before   
committing to an attack pattern. With stone hard words he spoke. "No   
descendant of mine would come into my house and kill one of my guests! No   
*creature* I'd be willing to call a relative would murder in cold blood a   
soul as innocent as Orchid's!"   
"Creature!" Tenchi screamed. "I'm not a murderer! How can you call me   
that? I was just trying to stop somebody from interfering in my past!   
Can't you understand that?!!"   
The battle had settled into earnest now. Yosho was far more experienced   
and skilled, but had allowed himself to relax through the years to where   
he was no longer in the fighting trim he had been when he had defeated   
Ryoko. There had seemed to be no need, and so while he remained spry, he   
was not in the shape he could have been.   
Tenchi had the blood of one of the strongest descendants of the royal   
house of Jurai, and he had ties to the power of the Earth as well. As   
always, his skill was less than stellar, but he was not without training   
and as before, when his emotions got up, he tapped into hidden reserves   
that made him potentially able to carve planetoids asunder, and to take   
such a blow in turn and survive.   
Yosho could have beaten him in his prime, or even with a few more weeks   
to regain his conditioning. As it was he was fighting the battle with   
Ryoko over again; A battle where only his tremendous skill stood between   
him and a raging inferno of his opponent's power. Only this time that   
opponent had some little portion of that skill as well. 

Achika battled the double of her own friend Ryoko with all the energy   
and skill that Yosho and her friendship with Ranma's girl form had   
inspired in her. Her friend now lay helpless on the ground behind her   
along with her pet Ryo-ohki, while the blazing ruins of this *other*   
Ryoko's copy of Ryo-ohki lay lay at the bottom of the harbor somewhere.   
Probably still burning.   
The hostile Ryoko held her breath. She could beat this princess in a   
fight, but the one thing she did *not* want above all was to kill the   
mother of Tenchi, especially before Tenchi had been born! Trouble was,   
the girl seemed utterly intent on killing *her* and wasn't easily going   
to let herself be taken down non-violently.   
Unknown to Ryoko, Achika was quite capable of killing her, too. 

Ayeka faced Ayeka.   
"So you have abandoned your duty to Yosho to chase after this boy? I'm   
amazed that a copy of me could sink so low. Don't you know of your duty   
to Jurai?"   
The copy of the purple-haired princess with the large, bulky thing on   
her head with glowing lights screamed at her past double. "Well, *I*   
don't see how you can stay loyal to a rickety old goat such as my   
brother! Besides, Tenchi is warm and kind..."   
The past Ayeka's eyes remained hard. "So you don't even know that my   
brother is under a disguise field, concealing his youth. How pitiful."   
The future Ayeka turned pale. "Yosho... under a disguise?"   
The past one nodded. "Yes. He revealed it to me in order to get my help.   
You see, he didn't have an indecisive, scrawny grandson to pawn me off to   
like a piece of fruit. Oh, and how would the Earth people describe him? A   
weenie, oh yes, that's right."   
"Grrrr!!" The future Ayeka was glowing blue.   
"Perhaps it's best if things be this way. If, as you say, my past has   
been altered, then I should be glad of it, rather than turn into a   
disgusting creature like you. You can't even hurt me without knowing that   
any scar you give would ruin your own complexion."   
"WELL, I'M GOING TO TRY!!!" Screamed her future self. 

Washu screamed and ducked yet another energy attack.   
This kid was TOUGH!   
Even though she had all the abilities of her daughter Ryoko; namely   
flying, energy blades out of nowhere, teleporting, phasing and being   
really hard to kill, she normally preferred to stay out of a fight and   
just observe, with maybe a little help from her inventions to sway a   
battle her way.   
This blond-haired gaijin that was fighting on the enemy side was TOUGH!   
Maybe he was a boyfriend of that Orchid girl. Curse not having time to   
use her scanners properly! This kid had attacked and wasn't letting her   
get to ANYTHING!! How was she supposed to fight without her gadgets?!   
For Ranma this was simple. It was called: pressing the assault. Which   
thing involved making the enemy react to you so they don't do more   
complicated and more dreadful stuff. He'd seen how fast and easily she'd   
taken down Ryoko, and didn't intend to leave that kind of threat alone to   
do worse.   
A blast caused Washu to dodge past, teleporting behind the leg of the   
huge bio-structure currently regenerating in the bay. ~Hmmm.~ Washu   
materialized her keyboard and pressed a key. "Activation of sub-routine   
for the acceleration of regeneration has been establish....! URK!!!"   
The little scientist stared at the sword that had been rammed through   
her gullet. She raised her eyes to her attacker's.   
"Nobody hurts Achika or her friends and lives." The boy told her   
solemnly. "Digger Volt!!" A blast of high intensity electrical energy   
slammed down the blade and right into the scientist's body. Ranma   
withdrew the blade, aware that had Washu been able to access her   
technology more freely their resolution would have been reversed.   
Beside him, the legs of the Angel stirred. 

Yosho was batted back by an energy wave that threw him across the lawn   
and sent his body cratering into the side of a building. His enemy was   
not toying with him, there was too much energy committed on both sides   
for that. Even having cut the boy several times had not done Yosho much   
good. The youngster seemed to have an endless supply of power with which   
to heal himself and press his own attacks.   
A power that he was not really using, come to think of it.   
Tenchi lowered his sword just a trifle. "So are you willing to talk now?   
You can't beat me, Grandpa. I've got all the training you could give me   
and I've got the Jurai royal power."   
"I have not..." Yosho began, pulling himself to his feet, "... ever   
given you the right to call me your ancestor."   
"Don't SAY that!" Tenchi shouted.   
Yosho straightened up, looking regally at the boy he refused to   
acknowledge as a grandson. "You are no descendant of mine."   
Tenchi screamed, got angry, and while he did so Yosho attacked. 

"Achika!" Ryoko called to her friend from where the demon from the   
girl's own time lay helpless on the ground. The demon swallowed her   
pride. "Kill me."   
"What!!?" Achika spared a glance back for her friend. The Ryoko from the   
future stopped fighting, shocked as well.   
The bound and helpless Ryoko sucked in her arrogance. "Kill me, Achika,   
I beg you. If these guys really are from the future, I'd have to be alive   
to be helping them like this. I don't want that."   
"I would *never* strike you down, Ryoko. You're my friend!"   
"Please," the helpless demoness begged. "If you kill me then all their   
plans die too. Without me or Ryo-ohki, they could never have breached the   
dimensional barrier to follow you. Please, do this to save Orchid."   
Future Ryoko blinked at her past self's loyalty. She'd felt that way for   
someone *other* than Tenchi?"   
"Besides, if you don't do it," past Ryoko murmured to her friend.   
"Orchid will die."   
Achika rounded on her enemy with a fierce glower. "Not if I can help it,   
Ryoko." In a different life she might have summoned enough of the Jurai   
power to kill a multi-dimensional being capable of destroying galaxies.   
That kind of effort would doom her, but she tapped a lessor portion and   
began to glow with power.   
Achika was more powerful than her son.   
The future Ryoko was blinking at this with a 'oh, shoot, I'm screwed'   
expression.   
"Ohohohohohoho!!! Maybe I ought to let them destroy you, Ryoko." Future   
Ayeka arrived on the scene. "My own past self had *none* of my fighting   
experience. She ought to wake up in an hour or two. But then I ought to   
have Tenchi all to myself, because if I help you, you'll owe me, and if I   
don't, you won't be there to worry about, don't you think?"   
"Shut up, Ayeka." Future Ryoko growled at her supposed ally. "Or do you   
think you can take Tenchi's mom alone?"   
Ayeka considered. "Well, I'm sure that she's no match for the both of   
us. After all, she has almost none of Lord Tenchi's training."   
Achika turned and struck a downward slash at past Ryoko's exposed   
throat. Future Ryoko tensed, waiting for oblivion at the action. When it   
failed to happen, she cracked her eyes open a bit. Her past self was   
rising up alongside Tenchi's mom, the glowing ember's of Washu's control   
collar falling to the dust around her feet.   
Future Ryoko's eye's flung wide as she saw her past self powering up for   
a blast using all three of her power crystals. "That's not fair!" Future   
Ryoko cried. "Tenchi only gave me one!"   
Past Ryoko's eyes were hot and level as she grew her blast even more   
powerful. "Your little trip upset Yosho so much he gave me all three.   
DIE!!!" A rippling bolt of power sprung across the intervening distance,   
curdling the terrain in its wake and causing backlash from the shockwaves   
caused in passage.   
The force beam caught Future Ayeka, ripped through her shields and   
vanquishing her to oblivion before going on into deep space. Scattered   
dust was all that remained of the Jurai princess.   
Achika stepped up to past Ryoko's side, her own energy sword ablaze with   
power.   
Future Ryoko sweatdropped.   
Past Ryoko blew on her fingertips, smiling. "That felt... oddly   
satisfying." She flexed her fingers into a fist, forming an energy sword.   
"Achika, go help your father. *I'm* going to deal with this tramp."   
"Gotcha." Achika scooted, not wanting to be nearby. 

Yosho's body hit the ground, cut and bruised. The old man struggled to   
rise, fearing as he did so there was no way he could win this fight.   
That's when Achika stepped up to his side, Light Hawk Wings blazing with   
Juraian power.   
"Mom?!??" Tenchi cried out in fear and wonder.   
Her gaze was hard. "I acknowledge no son who'd do this to his   
grandfather nor slay a girl as innocent as my friend Orchid."   
"Oh, don't you start that, too." Tenchi deadpanned as he sweatdropped.   
Yosho pulled himself to his knees. "What is your name, boy?"   
"My name's TENCHI!!!" He screamed at his grandfather.   
Yosho smiled as he turned to Achika. "Achika, daughter, I hereby forbid   
you to ever give a child that name."   
Achika smiled and nodded gladly at her father.   
"WHAT?!?" Tenchi screamed. The device that he wore on his head heated up   
and came alight with warning whoops and sirens.   
Yosho nodded solemnly, eying the youngster. "And for my part, I shall   
never train any of your offspring, but shall leave that to you and your   
husband. Though I *will* train you for the intent of you passing on that   
knowledge to your children."   
The device on Tenchi's head gave a tiny puff of steam before the lights   
went out and it failed. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound came   
as he simply faded away, the rest of the time traveling attackers going   
as well.   
Yosho put an arm around his daughter and allowed her to aid him to his   
feet. "Well, that was easy. People who travel into the past should work   
harder that they don't erase themselves."   
Achika giggled, happy in relief.   
They started back to the remains of the Tendo building. 

"This is turning out to be an eventful morning." Ranma groused to   
himself, flying aloft and shattering a few spells on the skin of the   
monster-thingy.   
He resolved to call it Hellspawn, because that fit the best of what he   
could think of, and it *didn't* act like an angel. Or at least none of   
the ones HE knew! Gaining altitude, he went into free fall and dropped a   
Dragon Slave on the thing's head. One thing this style of magic couldn't   
do was cast two spells simultaneously. A big disadvantage when you had to   
both fly and fight.   
The blast hurled one half of the monster into the other and they   
rejoined, no longer running about as two separate critters.   
"Yup, nothing but Hellspawn would describe that behavior." He saw the   
monster start to mutate and used his remaining altitude to drop another   
Dragon Slave onto it, flinging it farther out to sea.   
He barely recovered before he went sploosh, and swiftly rose up to gain   
height in case he had to do that again, though his spell energy was   
getting low.The hellspawn sent out a forest of blood red spikes growing   
from its head, which then flopped over backward giving a crablike   
impression.   
Ranma Ulped.   
The Angel/Hellspawn put both hands on its towering hips. "Ahahahaha!!!"   
It roared. "I am Washu-iel. Cower ignorant mortals, for you are DOOMED!!"   
Ranma was struck by the temptation to wet himself. 

Urd was staring at a viewscreen. "Hmmm, no. I don't think so." And she   
hit a key. 

The giant Washu stopped laughing."Hey, what's happening? You can't do   
that!! The timestream's been overridden! What do you mean I can't exist   
in this temporal format without an geometaphysical anchor, I've *got* an   
anchor. What?!! Tenchi's been vanquished!? No! Aaaaaargghhh!!" and faded   
away.   
Ranma was dripping enough sweat the cool ocean breeze had chilled it and   
turned him female. She was twitching all the time.   
"That's what I call too close." She murmured, then flew back to the   
house.   


To Be Continued... 

*****   
Author's Notes: 

Wow! Life's been something of a wild ride for me lately. If I were to   
list troubles no doubt half of you would commit seppuku out of shared   
misery if you were not immediately sedated. And since I aim to prevent   
such a catastrophe, I shall forbear. 

I'll blame it all on the Knights of Akane, because, well, why wouldn't   
I? That they're not technically at fault has no bearing on this matter.   
The subject of their worship has always misapplied blame anyway, they   
can't complain if I do the same. 

Otherwise they'd be hypocrites, and have to worship Genma. 

Hey! Genma's dishonor + Akane's anger and you have Ryoga! The unholy   
Trinity! That explains so much... 

The Song "Bless Us All" was from the Muppet Christmas Carol, sung by   
Tiny Tim, and was read word-for-word at the funeral of my own son   
Timothy. I had to include it here. 

Work on part 19 is expected to be completed real soon now. I make no   
promises, because I might be attacked by chicks wielding mallets or a   
bandana-wielding fanged boy, but significant parts have already been   
written and I've got the concept strong. It *may* happen in a week or so. 

Oh, P.S. I may be changing email accounts someday soon. Gregg Sharp and   
Celeste Byrd will be the best ways to contact me *IF* you get a bounce.   
Kindly don't bug them if my netuser account *doesn't* bounce as yet. By   
Part 19 I should (IhopeIhopeIhope) have a new email addy to include. 

(author climbs a tree and pulls it up after him)   



	19. 19

Mirrors Multiplied 

Chapter Nineteen 

Silence of the Prereaders 

by Jared Ornstead   
aka Skysaber   
  


Author's Prequel:   
In this section I detail an invention which for the sake of context   
I call here a Tesla Battery. It is solely *my* creation. But I see the   
chance of it coming to market as somewhat less than nil. The   
circumstances of its invention were interesting, but I present the   
theory for your amusement value.   
Also, I found it less absurd an attempt at breaking the mental   
barrier than trying to explain to you how to divide by zero. Which I   
can do to my own satisfaction, and *scared* the last mathematician I   
explain it to as he said that it challenged his entire vision of math.   
Not that I think it's that exciting. 

The story, of course, is also for amusement purposes only. I place   
it here for the giggles of those who might enjoy it, and may well crawl   
back into my hole in fear of those that don't.   
For those of you who are curious, it was Jim Robert Bader, in a   
series of ceaseless, relentless attacks, who managed to put enough   
abuse on my story, my philosophy, writing style, outlook and myself   
that this segment of Mirrors had sat complete on my desktop for over a   
year before I dared trying my hand at this series again. All because he   
thought that a non-corrupt government wasn't possible even in fiction.   
The shock was made all the greater by the fact that he was a prereader   
at the time.   
And it was ultimately Richard Robinson who convinced me to give   
this one last try. 

Thanks Rick, and to all those others who encouraged me. Your words mean   
so much.   


*****   
Universe D, Eva Dimension 

They arrived back at the ruins of the Tendo house only to find   
someone waiting for them. The young man with black hair shaved close   
and with a pigtail in back smiled and put a hand behind his head in   
embarrassment.   
"Ehehehe, hi guys."   
The crew that had arrived with Yosho powered up.   
The youth bowed. "Sorry about this. But mom kinda sent me back in   
time. It seems there's some kind of dimensional crossrip and we need   
all of you home to stabilize it."   
Someone plucked up the nerve to ask the question. "Tenchi?" Achika   
stood blinking with a fearful face.   
"Yah." The youth bowed again, nervous.   
Yosho shot his daughter a look that asked a serious question.   
Tenchi apparently didn't notice, still rubbing the back of his   
head. "Well, my *real* name is Tendoichi, but even *you* started   
calling me Tenchi after everyone else was. For some reason your future   
self, my mom I mean, asked that I should say that. I don't know why.   
It's true, though."   
The crowd around Yosho relaxed considerably, easing the poor boy's   
fright. Yosho started rubbing his chin. "Well, we really should be   
headed home now. We've got what we came for."   
"Excuse me?" Nabiki asked from within the ruins of her family's   
house.   
"You're going away?" Kasumi echoed.   
"It was very kind of you to have us." Ayeka bowed in parting.   
"See ya!" Sasami caroled.   
Ranma seperated himself partway from the Tenchi crowd and tried to   
think of something to say to Achika as she was leaving.   
Ryoko and Achika grabbed him from either side and with a flick of   
both wrists, Yosho sent the three of them through the time portal. Then   
bowed in departure and entire crowd of visitors disappeared in an   
instant.   
A moment later Ranma reappeared in a cloud of sparkling motes,   
looking somewhat more mature, wiser, and of course, dressed in finery   
that neither of the Tendo sisters could recognize as the robes of the   
Jurai Emperor.   
Ranma brushed off his sleeves, then noted the wreck and ruin of the   
house around them. With a wry smirk he noted calmly to himself. "Oh   
yes, I'd forgotten what a wreck we'd left your place as."   
"Forgotten?" Kasumi and Nabiki both echoed in stunned unison.   
He shrugged. "Well, it's been two hundred years, you know."   
Kasumi fainted.   
Nabiki tried but couldn't speak. She kept opening her mouth but   
nothing came out. Looking concerned, Ranma crossed over to Kasumi's   
side and woke her. She fluttered a bit as she came awake in his arms.   
"Kasumi, are you well?"   
"I..." she made the mistake of looking up into his blue eyes and   
froze. The words came of their own volition. "At first I was worried   
that you'd gone. Now you're back and you say that it's been two hundred   
years..."   
He smiled kindly, and nodded. "Yes. It's been quite a ride, too.   
Tenchi, my son, you met him, came and collected us while that universe   
straightened out. Yosho started playing games that got me married to   
Achika, then Ryoko. Sasami was worried that I didn't appear to be doing   
so well, then she did something that gave me the Jurai power to bolster   
my immune system and health - which was failing. Sometime later Yosho   
pointed out to Ayeka that he had no intention of taking the Jurai   
throne, and pointed her in MY direction. So both she and Sasami joined   
the crew, while Yosho dropped his guard for one tiny instant and so   
woke up the next day married to Washu...."   
He shook his head, a smirk in place on his lips. "It's been a wild   
ride. And that's not even *mentioning* the successful war of   
extermination we waged against the Vogon race or any of the other   
things that go on when you're the ruler of an interstellar empire."   
Nabiki kept opening and closing her mouth, trying to say something.   
Ranma looked down into Kasumi's liquid brown eyes kindly. He   
sighed. "I only came back because it's been so long that even with the   
Jurai power my health continues to go down. I need to find a part of   
myself that's gone missing, and Washu said the best place to get   
started was here. Otherwise I'd die and *never* get to see the   
grandkids!"   
Instead of the amusement he'd expected at this announcement, Kasumi   
seemed to wilt inside. "Oh." She muttered softly.   
He quickly divined the cause of her concern, and sat her up so that   
he could speak to her more on a level. "Kasumi, they are all in another   
dimesnion now, and if you want to speak of other realities, there's one   
not so far back where I'm married to *you*." He pursed his lips. "I'm   
rather fond of that one, actually, even though I did end up   
accidentally taking over Japan and China."   
Nabiki finally found voice. "You mean... you rule over Japan and   
China?"   
He shot her a grin. "Strictly by accident, I assure you. I was   
fighting with one of my traditional foes, Kuno actually, and displayed   
enough firepower doing it that the Emperor chose to surrender the next   
day, and China the week after. The US also chose to steal one of my war   
machines, and had a well-laid plan that was excellently conceived, well   
thought out and excecuted, whose only flaw was that I happened to be in   
the cockpit at the time. I didn't stay around for it but gather that   
they were added to the fold a day or so later. I get the feeling that   
more would have joined once our technology became clear."   
Both girls looked at him with VERY mixed feelings. 

*****   
Somewhere Between Universes A and B 

Skuld was shaking her head. "I can't get a handle on it! The whole   
thing's spiraling out of control!"   
Another Skuld addressed her from the other side of the room in   
Yggdrasil's control bay, where she'd been accessing monitors. "It's   
still only a small leak." She said.   
The first Skuld shook her head. "But it's GROWING! If this keeps up   
soon there will be crossover material between your universe and mine!"   
"That would lead to a convergance, wouldn't it?" One Belldandy   
asked of another, her twin from the other universe. That other nodded   
soberly.   
Two Urds sat side by side at terminals. One slammed her fist down   
on the seat's arm rest and turned her back to the controls, shaking her   
head. The other Urd paused and looked curiously at her. Both shook   
their heads.   
"Have you isolated it?" Both Skulds asked in chorus.   
Both Urds motioned in identical gesturs to the monitors on their   
wall. One showed a happy Kasumi doing laundry at the Tendo house in   
Universe A, the other revealed an even happier Kasumi who was *also*   
doing laundry, this time at the Saotome mansion in Universe B.   
"So they're the ones our crossover rip has settled on?" The Skuld   
on the right asked.   
The Urd on the left gave her an answer. "It would seem so. When   
Ranma married both of them it created an interdimensional particle   
bridge."   
"Oh." All six goddeses sagged.   
"How soon before things begin to pass through?" One of the   
Belldandies inquired.   
"Hours?" On of the Urds asked the other. Her double shook her head.   
"Minutes."   
Both Skulds glowered and whispered. "Seconds, I'll bet."   
"Will our universes collide?" Both Belldandies asked in concern   
from their more technical sisters.   
All of the Urds and Skulds looked at each other appraisingly. Both   
Urds crossed their arms and looked down. "We'll have to decide whose   
past is going to be dominent."   
Before her sisters' startled eyes, there came a kind of reflection   
scattering of the two Urds as if they were merely images cast on   
disturbed water. When it cleared there was only one. Looking a bit   
startled, she raised her eyes. "Too late."   
There was only an instant before both Skulds and Belldandies merged   
as well. The three unduplicated sisters who now remained looked at each   
other.   
Skuld went to the controls. "We'd better hurry this along! I don't   
relish getting split apart again." Her two older sisters rushed in to   
help her.   
The Universes began to collide and combine. 

*****   
Universe B 

Kasumi hummed softly to herself as she was hanging wash. There was   
something about sun-dried sheets that no machine could ever match. And   
all of the mecha on patrol today were women pilots, so she felt right   
about putting her unmentionables out to dry.   
Suddenly she heard another humming, and lowered the towel she'd   
been raising to dry on the line, seeing beyond it on the other side of   
the clothesline a reflection of herself, as in a mirror, who was also   
holding a lowered towel in curiosity. They blinked in perfect unison.   
Each Kasumi reached out a hand, as if to test the reflection. When   
their fingers met and touched she blurred and rippled, then only one   
Kasumi was standing there. She could recall perfectly *two* quiet   
weddings to Ranma, a fierce blush at the memory of two very distinct   
and *active*, though brief wedding nights, and two quiet lives leading   
up to a more than similar husband.   
The insanity differed somewhat, and was more extreme in one case   
than the other. And she had to remember not to let Ranma marry her   
youngest sister, seeing as how the two of them hadn't gotten along so   
well the lifetime they'd tried being engaged.   
With that thought, she began humming as she resumed hanging laundry   
again. With plots burrowing at the back of her mind about how to get   
him alone for a week or so and pick up that honeymoon where they'd left   
off. 

*****   
Universe D 

Ranma grinned wryly.   
Somehow, someway, no matter that he'd just saved their lives, owned   
more high degrees than he could count (some universes didn't give   
doctorates, or any of the more comprehensible titles, so he'd stopped   
long ago trying to keep track of being a Fifth order duke of the rank   
of Tea Green on the subject of Astronomy - as one of the more mundane   
of the wigged out educational certificates he'd gained), had endless   
honors (though some he'd consciously avoided; like back when the   
English King, Happosai the Eighth, instituted the Knights of the   
Garter. Seeing King Happy with a pair of panties on his head spouting   
the order's motto "Shame on him who thinks evil of it" had permanently   
put Ranma off on that particular institution), nevertheless, in spite   
of it all, he still had to go to school.   
There was no mercy in public institutions, only obedience.   
Glad beyond measure that his first period was a history class,   
Ranma eagerly turned on his desk computer and rigged it for its fastest   
display speed.   
"Wow!" He commented after a moment of reading. A *really* different   
world!   
As the text scrolled past he made his assumption that the United   
States kept its act together without getting all of the usual   
corruption. Prohibition had stuck, which meant that organized crime was   
left running booze instead of drugs, an order of magnitude less bad any   
way you measured it. An early religious leader had gotten elected   
president, violently opposed to financial shenanigans, and that had   
left its mark. They'd never instituted income tax, or a property tax,   
and ran things other ways. Lack of funds kept the federal government   
small, which made it easy to monitor instead of having near-infinite   
layers of fat in which to hide corruption.   
And when a senator got out of control the state legislatures called   
him back and sent a new one, which kept them representing the populace   
instead of running amok. In fact most things still worked just fine   
over there.   
There was a TON of material and Ranma was just skimming by it. None   
of the usual world wars had broken out, which meant that Germany had   
never destabilized Russia, and then there'd been no communist   
revolution, which meant no communism worldwide as the Russians had   
almost always been the seedbed behind it.   
No communism, no global spy agencies of the sophistication he was   
used to, which meant no satellites or some other technologies. The list   
went on and on. Though somehow someone had still summoned together   
enough excuse to form the UN...   
...oh, to "contain the threat of the United States." Of course, how   
could it be anything else? Those guys are happy and making money, how   
dare they? So the World vs the US was it? Interesting. And something   
analogous to world war two had happened with Japan making a large land   
and resource grab in the early forties, but none of the European powers   
had gotten involved as they'd lost their colonies and protectorates   
long before in a regional war led by Tibet.   
Japan had shelled the western coast of the United States, burning   
San Francisco to the ground as warning to stay out of their waters, and   
had been conquered by the US later that same year, who'd also ended up   
making them a territory for good measure. Statehood had been granted   
over twenty years later and was now a staunchly defended right by most   
of the formerly Japanese populace.   
A *contested* right, because the world had developed nukes just   
over a year ago and the UN and US were butting horns. The UN claiming   
that all separate nations held no right of their own sovereignty, and   
the US citizens refusing to acknowledge any power they hadn't elected   
or agreed to.   
Both sides angry for different reasons as the US had never joined   
the UN.   
And as a deliberate provocation, the UN had used their nuclear   
power to strongarm a base here in Japan, then added insult to injury by   
putting a huge secret military project in a vast sprawling,   
nuclear-hardened complex here - Evangelion units. America now had nukes   
and both sides were a little wary, especially as the US claimed the UN   
was responsible for the alien attacks in the first place. It got worse   
as UN military units - the Evangelions, had been stomping around on US   
property - Japan, and causing enormous damage. Top UN officials were   
lording themselves around like they owned the state, and even setting   
off their new generation of arsenal, the N2 mines, on inhabited   
regions.   
Frankly, to Ranma, it looked like war. 

*****   
Star Wars Alternate 

Ranko followed after as Leia pressed the pad that would open this   
new cell she'd stopped by. Ranko watched her closely, yet still hadn't   
found the princess do anything she hadn't, and yet it opened.   
Princess Leia stepped into the open door. "Princess Rune Venus of   
Roshtaria? I am Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. What do you say we   
put aside our differences until we get out of this station?"   
"That's far enough!" Came a male voice back from the control area.   
A tall, thin man in black armor had just exited the lifts, followed by   
dozens and dozens of buglike aliens. "Did you think that when a request   
came for more troops from the one cell block to contain *all* our royal   
prisoners that I wouldn't know about it? AHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I, Darth   
Jinnai, am not so *easily* fooled as my cyborged friend the *other*   
Dark Lord of the Sith, who, I must add, is FAR inferior to *ME*, of   
course!"   
"We're dead." Leia whispered, clutching the blaster to her.   
Ranko smirked, stepping up to her side. "Don't worry, while *we're*   
here distracting him, Makoto is off thwarting Jinnai's evil plan and   
making a wreck out of his entire life."   
The dark lord's face went purple, then he screamed. "Damn you   
Mizuhara! I'll get you yet!" And Darth Jinnai ran off into the lift,   
followed by most of his bug aliens. One remained behind, pointed at the   
princesses and mumbled, but Ranko's foot removed its head from it's   
shoulders.   
"How did you *do* that?" Both princesses muttered.   
"What? The kick?" Ranko stood puzzled.   
"No, Darth Jinnai...."   
"...how do you know him so well?" Rune asked.   
"...did you just sacrifice your support team to him?" Leia pressed.   
Ranko looked uncomfortable under the questions and shrugged. "All I   
know is that that guy hates Makoto with a passion that is unholy." She   
tapped another door button and frowned when it didn't work. To top it   
off she was getting this itching all over that was driving her MAD. As   
her chi was so low, almost nonviable, she diverted a portion of the   
Silver Moon energy that was powering her into disease control. "I don't   
even know if Makoto Mizuhara is on station..."   
"But..." Rune stammered. "Lately he goes by Ben Mizuhara..." 

*****   
Universe A 

Nodoka was toweling her hair dry as she emegrged from the tub,   
another towel wrapped around herself. With wet hair hanging down into   
her eyes, she reached for the sliding door into the antechamber of the   
bathroom and her hand encountered nothing. She lowered the towel and   
brushed her hair aside to stare in awe at the magnificent tiled   
bathroom all around her, with statuary standing beside fountains and   
steaming baths the size of swimming pools.   
Through an archway another Nodoka entered. They stared at each   
other. The one accustomed to more humble surroundings bowed in apology.   
"I am sorry, I don't mean to intrude. But I'm afraid I have no idea how   
I got here."   
The other eyed her curiously. "You even sound like me. Tell me, are   
you by any chance from another universe?"   
The poor one blinked. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."   
The area rippled. There was only one Nodoka. "Oh." She said softly   
to herself. "Now I do."   
Memories of bright happiness with one husband clashed with dark   
agonies suffered by the negligence and neglect of the other. It was   
though an effort of will that she lifted all of the memories of the   
brutal, uncaring one aside and let them vanish in the still shimmering   
midst of her change, letting only the observation that he was   
repugnantly evil remain.   
That done, Nodoka fainted. 

*****   
Universe D 

Misato swung her hair out over the back of her seat bench. Getting   
out of hours of cram duty going over their records only now to shuttle   
their pilots about.   
She sighed heavily.   
That battle had rattled everybody's nerves down at headquarters. So   
*now* she got stuck tracking the trace down!   
Eyewitnesses had spotted a blond boy flying around blasting the   
angels (the one that remained being monitored as it slowly yet steadily   
recovered) and now Misato was stuck finding out who or what that boy   
was!   
She groaned. The UN was overworked, underfunded, and tight on   
manpower. It didn't help that these ignorant yokels kept getting in   
their way! But at least they'd adopted a standard school system of   
late, even though they'd had to RAM IT DOWN THEIR IDIOT, LOCAL THROATS!   
So what if education levels were dropping? School wasn't about   
education, it was about training the youth to obey authority so they   
wouldn't talk back or question orders! Get a grip! Education was a side   
effect.   
"Excuse me major, I believe this is our station stop." Rei informed   
the NERV officer.   
Misato shook herself out of her trance, looking at Rei and thinking   
~Case in Point~ before disembarking the train. She'd been stationed   
here she tended to forget how long and the speed of the trains still   
surprised her. Back in the Geofront they used the European rail model,   
and these were quite different. She got out of her plush, lounge-style   
seat and ushered the three pilots out before her.   
"Okay, c'mon kids. We've got another school to check to see if you   
can recognize this guy." ~THEN we've got to get him to NERV to be   
examined.~ Misato thought wryly. She rolled her eyes.   
Getting these stubborn American types to recognize their control   
was alot harder than fighting angels! Just recruiting the guy was   
liable to be a nightmare. She sighed. Too bad they couldn't have   
imported European teachers, only insist on training for selectively   
chosen locals. This would be alot easier with the appropriately trained   
help. 

Ranma leaned back as class began, not really expecting to learn   
anything. He was surprised that, when class started, almost all of the   
students began doing their own thing, reading books, using equipment...   
It looked like the most organized self-study he'd ever seen.   
He wandered over to Nabiki's group, where she was in the midst of   
explaining to her cronies. "...All run from a standard size one   
powercell."   
"Huh? What kind of powercell?" He interrupted to ask. ~Fusion   
block, perhaps? They don't look that advanced.~   
"You know, like a Tesla battery?" Nabiki glanced back at him.   
"Ah. Well I hope you've got a fresh one." He temporized.   
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Get a grip, Saotome. I said a TESLA   
battery, a powercell, not that European garbage they call batteries."   
The teacher rose from behind his desk. "Yes. You know Nikolai   
Tesla, emigrated to the United States to work under Edison, grew   
dissatisfied and relocated to the west coast and California. There he   
established a workshop that has remained the centerpiece of our   
electronic industry ever since. His theory behind the device was,   
simply put, that electron flow from one point to the next ought to be a   
closed loop, like so." The teacher drew a tight circle on the board.   
"You see, in early versions when scientists were experimenting they   
found that electricity had to have a loop in which to function, but   
they never explored further. Tesla found that, while Edison had several   
ways to draw elect..."   
"What he's trying to say." Nabiki interrupted. "Is that to create   
electricity you have to pull the electrons off of something, move them   
down a conductor, and then what happens? It is the moving of the   
electrons that we call electricity, not the electrons themselves. When   
you're done with them what happens? They find somewhere to call home,   
gravitating off to a place they can settle, essentially getting lost.   
So you have to keep drawing off more and more electrons with a   
generator."   
"What Tesla did," Sayuri said when Nabiki broke off. "Was to create   
something different from the earlier European battery, first created by   
the *American* Benjamen Franklin, which was essentially a bag that you   
stuffed full of electrons until you needed them. It was a poor design   
in many aspects because if you compare it to water, a European battery   
is a balloon which you've filled, relying on pressure alone to get the   
water out later. But the balloon leaks, the sides get slack, and the   
pressure fades even if you're not using it. Even reusing it is like   
reinflating a rubber balloon, the same stretch just couldn't be there   
the second time."   
Hiroshi broke in, eager to add his bit. "So instead of inventing an   
electron balloon that would stay tighter longer, or that would leak   
less, Tesla invented the powercell."   
Nabiki resumed her dialog. "So Ranma, like water flowing over a   
fall, it's the motion, not the water, that you use to run your   
waterwheel. That's why our ancestors built their mills on rivers, and   
not on lakes. All the water in the world doesn't give you any power if   
it's sitting stagnant in one place. Even the atoms that make the   
insulators for our wires have electrons themselves. The reason they   
work and we use them and call them insulators is they don't let   
electrons *flow* through them so well. While a conductor is merely   
something that allows them to flow more easily than most others. It's   
all about motion."   
"Because electricity is predictable, just like water." Yuka gave   
her sempai a smile. "If free electrons have somewhere to go, they'll go   
there, unless they have someplace better. As with water, it takes the   
shortest route down to the lowest level."   
"The Tesla battery, or powercell as we've come to call them, is a   
very simple design in concept - once someone had actually thought of   
it, that is." The teacher resumed with a smile. He added detail to his   
drawing on the board. "Electrons are drawn off of a cell like so, they   
are run through a conductor, past whatever it is you are powering.   
Their motion is what provides you with electricity, then they are again   
collected in the battery."   
Nabiki grinned. "What our esteemed teacher is *trying* to say...   
again, is that Tesla made a different sort of battery that was   
polarized, like a magnet. It draws its own supply of natural electrons   
to one end. Because of the makeup of the battery itself, like a series   
of one way gates, one end always has too many electrons and the other   
end always has too few. This made cheap power easy, all you do is   
create a path that connects the end spilling its electrons to the side   
that's starving for them and you've got flow for as long as the circuit   
is complete. This works because, like water, the electrons run off to   
what is the lowest level, and nothing in the area is as dry a sponge as   
the hungry side of the battery, which siphons them right on back to the   
other end, so they end up being used over and over in a closed loop and   
endlessly recycled."   
"That sounds like perpetual motion." Ranma frowned.   
Yuka stared at him. "There *are* ways to get something for nothing,   
you know. Just look at the Gravity Pump."   
They had him there, Ranma had to admit. He'd even built those when   
he'd had need. It was a system without power or moving parts that   
brought water uphill. It worked, worked very well, ran until something   
physically broke it, and was essentially free. It used the weight of   
water going down (through smaller pipes) to drive some water up. So   
long as you had water and it flowed downhill the pump would continue to   
function.   
Which opened up the possibility of other things being free, as   
well.   
"So how come Europe doesn't have it?" He cocked his head to the   
side.   
Nabiki shrugged. "At first we weren't inclined to share it, and   
kept it as this big secret. The second is they'd later developed big   
electrical companies that didn't *want* it. I mean, how can you get   
more profitable than to sell someone something they need every single   
day? If you sell a man an electric device with a powercell you only   
sell him one thing, they grow more efficient over time and are   
self-contained. But if you sell him power through a wall socket or   
batteries, you can continue to sell those to him forever."   
Hiroshi tapped the end of his nose. "Just like disease. If you   
*cure* someone, then you've only sold him one thing."   
Sayuri glanced at her fellow student approvingly. "But if you just   
treat his symptoms, then he still has the main problem and you can   
continue to sell him *treatments* for as long as he stays alive."   
Nabiki crossed her arms. "The best example of that is what they   
call diabetes. You can *cure* it really easily with two trace minerals:   
Chromium and Vanadium. But how much money does it make a drug company   
to sell someone a little dirt? Especially when the alternative is to   
sell him insulin, something he needs every day if he wants to stay   
alive, and there is no way he can process and create any in his   
basement or backyard - so he relies on you to get it to him. You   
literally have a client who will die without what you choose to give   
him, at whatever price you want to charge."   
Yuka shook her head slowly. "Making money on human suffering,   
giving half steps and false treatments so you can make a patient feel   
better without ever making him well."   
The entire class sighed loudly.   
Daisuke was looking sad. He proclaimed. "You couldn't ever find   
*me* going to their kind of so-called 'medicine'. Man, they don't even   
cure *ulcers* of all things!"   
Sayuri nodded and sighed. "They *could* learn these things from us.   
But they have idustries making obscene fortunes by not doing so. So   
their advertisers spend some of that money making outright lies against   
us so we don't infect their system by accident."   
Ranma whistled low and soft, leaning back and deciding that he   
still *could* learn things in school. He looked around. "Wow! So you're   
schools are that good, huh?"   
"No." The entire class plus teacher answered him.   
He boggled in surprise.   
Nabiki shook her hair out.   
"It's based on the Prussian school system, which was developed not   
to teach, but to train obedient servants to the State. Actual education   
was discouraged by means such as breaking the learning day up into   
periods, dividing knowledge up into arbitrary subjects, and so forth."   
Ranma shot her a startled stare.   
Nabiki shrugged in reply. "Look it up. If you take everything   
you're told unexamined, that's not learning, only memorizing." She gave   
him that cocky smirk. "Lucky you if what you're memorizing happens to   
be true."   
The teacher sat down behind his desk, nodding vigorously and   
reaching for notes. "Yes. NEVER assume that anyone is right just   
because he or she happens to be standing in front of a classroom,   
wearing a uniform, talking legalese, appearing in the media or carrying   
a government ID card. Here, let me read you some things... Aha!" He   
picked up a paper. "Wherever is found a paternal (read: intrusive and   
oppressive) government, there is found state education. It has been   
discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to   
commence tyranny in the nursery." The teacher straightened his glasses.   
"That quote was from Benjamin Disraeli. Now here's one from another   
gentleman working on the other side of that same issue. 'Let our pupil   
be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public   
property. He must be taught to amass wealth, but it must be only to   
increase his power of contributing to the wants and demands of the   
state. This can be done only with the interference and aid of   
legislature.' That was a quote from Benjamin Rush in 1786." The teacher   
once again straightened his glasses and went for another note. "Here's   
another by a man on that same side. 'The result desired by the state is   
a wholly different one than that desired by parents, guardians and   
pupils.' Said by Lester Frank Ward in 1897. And more on that same side,   
it's amazing how *much* of this there is to be found, actually. Ah,   
yes, a bit from Edward Ross around 1900 or so, said this. 'The role of   
a schoolmaster is to collect little plastic lumps of human dough from   
private households and shape them on the social kneeding board.' And   
considering the views of that man's friends and associates, nothing   
they would have teachers produce would be acceptible to those 'lumps of   
plastic dough', their parents, *or* their teachers if they knew what   
the results would be beforehand. All but the first one of those quotes   
were by men who'd tried the *first* time to get compulsory public   
schooling in America. And from what they said their intentions were   
very clear about what they wanted, which *I* find scary."   
The schoolteacher straightened his glasses and stared at Ranma. "In   
case you hadn't found out before this: I hate my job. I sit here in the   
capacity of a tool for my worst enemies, in the business of destroying   
the minds of the children of my friends, and paid a pittance to do it.   
Naturally you should not expect me to be eager."   
Sayuri shook her head. "No, we learn at our homes, where our   
parents learned under a better system, before all this was imposed on   
us."   
Hiroshi shrugged, then plucked at the front of his school uniform.   
"No, we're only here because of the law that says we have to be. A law   
which was forced down our throats under threat of nuclear holocaust."   
"An open act of war." Yuka said to Sayuri, who nodded.   
Daisuke looked up from his experiments, wiping his hand on a cloth.   
"Yeah, if you want the references, try reading Dumbing Us Down: The   
Hidden Curriculum in Compulsory Schooling, by John Taylor Gatto, New   
Society Pulishers, 1992. I think that has most of the relevant facts   
and sources in it, but again." He said with a grin. "Get yourself in   
possession of the facts *before* you make up your opinions about   
issues."   
"Or you could look at the school system in Europe." A tussel-haired   
boy with large glasses glanced up from his book. "You can discover for   
yourself that their shocking rates of illiteracy, lack of historic   
knowledge, and sheeplike belief that people exist to serve the state   
didn't exist *before* public schooling, and aren't the result of a   
system that has *failed.* They are the result of a system that has   
succeeded beyond its founders' wildest dreams. That this sad state of   
affairs was, in fact, the *purpose* of government schools."   
Sayuri folded her arms below her breasts and said in a very quiet   
tone. "The system cannot be fixed. It already *works.*"   
Yuka gulped very heavily. "It just doesn't exist to teach us   
anything. Only mold us and shape us to what *they* want us to be. Any   
'teaching' that goes on is a cover story, an excuse to get us to   
behave. An illusion built to be nicer and more acceptible than the   
reality. All of the rest is just noise, propaganda, or outright lies."   
A redhead moaned. "At least we're old enough to know that. Think of   
the kids in the lowest grades. They're all young enough to trust what   
they're said is best for them to do."   
The teacher groaned behind his desk. "They would have me discourage   
everything but a 'well-ordered' classroom of 'guided study' in which   
everyone must learn at the same pace." A harried eye shot a gaze from   
under a haggared brow. "You don't all grow to the same height. Why must   
it be assumed that you all learn at the same rate? Or have equal   
interests in all the same things? Or even that the things they choose   
to be the fare doled out to all of you daily will be the ones of   
greatest use to you personally? How do you know if you've got great   
ability in other fields if you never have the opportunity to TRY?!?"   
Nabiki rolled her eyes and sat down at her desk. "The only reason   
we're not fighting right now is that they've got all the troops in the   
world and we're only the US. We don't even have a standing army."   
"Remember Mother Batherwick and the battle of Concord and   
Lexington, April 19, 1775. If one old woman, so impoverished that she   
was pulling weeds from an empty lot to have something to eat, could   
capture six of King George's grenadiers, the biggest and toughest of   
his soldiers, how many men would it require to conquer America?"   
Hiroshi drew a pistol and spun it casually around his finger. "But   
what use is the right to bear arms when the enemy's got nukes and   
Evangelions?"   
"'It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people   
that wants to remain servile as it is to enslave a people that wants to   
be free' - Niccolo Machiavelli." The tussel-haired boy quoted. "That   
ought to give us some hope, we want to be free."   
A girl gloomily replied. "Machiavelli didn't live in an age where   
it was possible to incinerate whole cities and millions of people just   
to get them to shut up."   
"They already have millions of unthinking slaves with virtual   
zombilike obedience. They just don't want anyone to wake them up."   
A quiet voice entered the ensuing silence.   
"That's him, miss Misato."   
Ranma turned his head toward the door to see several figures, just   
as a woman with the party tossed a gas grenade inside the door and   
slammed it shut. Without chi, he joined the rest of the class in   
passing out. 

*****   
Star Wars Crossover-Verse 

"Cosmic Moon Power!"   
Both princesses stared in rapt amazement as a ball of energy formed   
around the tip of Ranko's staff and sped forth, destroying an   
ever-widening cone of structure, supports, and perhaps more   
importantly, one of the multiple miles-long lasing chambers that made   
up the Death Star's main planet-destroying weapon.   
Sailor Earth dismissed her staff, stepping back as sympathetic   
explosions began in the miles of tortured machinery. "Come on, as much   
as I hate to say it, this is one case where I'm not all that good about   
dipping into another's bag of tricks. At least not without blowing   
myself up while I do it."   
Their small party 'Eeped' and began to scramble back along the   
corridor where piles upon piles of bugrom, stormtroopers, and battle   
droids (used in base assaults and never expected to get used in   
corridor fighting, but you're that desperate you use what you've got),   
that had, despite Moff Tarkin's wishes, not sufficiently slowed the   
party of Rebels much at all.   
Recapture had been put on hold as a priority until the Imperials   
could first think up some way to stop them from doing whatever it was   
they pleased.   
"I still think we should split up and escape aboard seperate   
ships." Leia countered Ranko's bold plan of going about blowing things   
up at random.   
Ranko still shook her head. "No, they've got five thousand TIE   
fighters aboard this thing and multiple hyperspace interceptors. That   
and their anti-warship weapons and we'd get blown to pieces no matter   
what we tried. I can't do much if we're locked aboard a ship." She   
hopped up into one of the yuzzum's arms and allowed herself to be   
carried wherever the fuzzy creature liked.   
Partly this was to conserve energy, as she normally had her Silver   
Moon abilities magnified by the power of the her chi and not the other   
way around. Since the fighting hadn't let up noticably since her   
departure from her prison cell, it was either conserve what she could   
or go dry when she needed it.   
It was also because she hadn't been able to use a single, flipping,   
thing in all of her attempts to use blasters, activate lifts, open   
doors or *anything* that involved using a type of control beyond mere   
muscle movement.   
Learning techniques was not a problem for her. She'd seen the   
others do things and had copied their movements precisely, even   
extemporised and experimented when that hadn't worked, played around   
and generally did her best to figure this out. So far all she'd learned   
was that her touching a device control was the same as it not being   
touched at all, even if she stabbed a button in the middle of a   
sequence that someone else was typing in.   
As far as she could tell the computers and touch pads and triggers   
couldn't even sense her. It was as if she wasn't alive... No, scratch   
that. Droids were able to do those things and she couldn't. Droids were   
not alive. Ranko scoweled, guessing that made her less than not alive.   
"But if we split up and stowed away..." Leia pressed.   
Ranko yawned. "If Grand Moff Tarkin hasn't stopped all legitimate   
traffic out then I've sorely overestimated him. They've got troops and   
scanning teams, and we haven't got the information on where really to   
hide or even get a decent spot to make a stand. If I can't sleep then   
sooner or later they're going to recapture or possibly kill us."   
Also, if she couldn't do something about this itching, she was   
going to go NUTS and that wasn't saying a thing about her ability to   
contain disease costing her so much of her ongoing energy supply.   
A figure appeared in the corridor before them, wearing the robes of   
a Jedi. 

*****   
Universe D, Eva Universe 

Ranma came to staring at the single most familiar ceiling he had   
ever seen in his entire life... err, lives.   
He rolled over on his bed in the NERV infirmary. "Man, I hate this   
place."   
  


To Be Continued... (is my fervent hope)   


*****   
Author's Notes. 

If someone doesn't kill me for having written this, I will be   
vaguely and honestly yet happily surprised. It might even let the   
series go on once again.   
BTW, the references and quotes (and the book mentioned) are all   
real. Those ARE the phrases made by the founders and philosophers of US   
government education. And if you don't like those quotes, here's   
another. 

"People - pardon me, journalists and politicians - have often accused   
me of believing that I'm above the law. And yet, who isn't? Everywhere   
you prod it, even with the shortest stick, the established system isn't   
simply corrupt, it's unequivocally putrescent. The law is created by   
demonstrable criminals, enforced by demonstrable criminals, interpreted   
by demonstrable criminals, all for demonstrably criminal purposes. Of   
course I'm above the law. And so are you." - L. Neil Smith, Pallas 

Or if you prefer something short and pluckier: 

"When only cops have guns, it's called a police state." - Unknown (to   
me at least) 


End file.
